A team of Wichita State University researchers is focusing their research on health equity for women in Kansas.

The project is led by Public Health Sciences faculty members Amy Chesser, Nikki Keene Woods and community member Melody McCray-Miller. Their research has been approved for a $250,000 funding award through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

The funds will support the exploration of the patient-centered model’s impact on health care needs across the lifespan to improve health equity for women in Kansas. 

The project will focus on examining the feasibility of implementing a Women Involved Network (WIN) in a Midwest state. This project will be patient-centered and include patients and community stakeholders of various ages at all phases.

The project will also assess whether the educational interventions affect health disparities and improve health equity for women in Kansas.

This innovative project will be among the first to document the use of such a network in providing support for women in vulnerable populations, including rural communities. 

The Women Involved Network (WIN for Kansas): Community Collaboration to Create Health Equity is part of a portfolio of projects PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients and other stakeholders equipped to participate as partners in comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and disseminate PCORI-funded study results. Through the Engagement Awards Program, PCORI is creating an expansive network of individuals, communities and organizations that are interested and able to participate in, share and use patient-centered CER. 

Chesser said they are proud to engage the community to address women’s health issues for the state of Kansas. 

“This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to create community-based solutions for removing silos and building trust to identify solutions for creating health equity,” she said. 

Keene Woods said, “We are excited to focus on health equity from a community-based perspective to create change and positively impact our community, and the timing couldn’t be better.” 

This project and other projects approved for funding by the PCORI Engagement Award Program were selected through a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria.

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and health care decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.