Improving Health Outcomes Through Community Outreach

In a Q&A, Dr. Fotios Koumpouras and Dr. Sarika Ramachandran, co-founders of Yale School of Medicine’s combined rheumatology/dermatology clinic, discuss their approach to treating complex diseases like lupus. Their clinic offers collaborative care, with specialists working together to diagnose and manage conditions more effectively.

The clinic's goals extend beyond patient care to community engagement, aiming to raise awareness about lupus, a disease that disproportionately affects ethnic groups such as African Americans, East Asians, and Hispanics. This outreach is also about improving access to care, especially for young people, and addressing the stigma and fears associated with lupus. As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, community involvement has become critical to enhancing health outcomes.

The clinic's community outreach efforts are also educational, including conferences that foster interdepartmental learning and thought leadership. These initiatives benefit both patients and physicians, ensuring that care providers understand the diverse needs of the community and that clinical trials reflect the population affected by the disease. Community engagement translates to increased funding for both clinical care and research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and pursuing a cure for lupus. Activities like fundraisers, educational forums, and the 'trials buddy' program help boost awareness and patient engagement.

Addressing barriers to clinical trial participation is another important focus. The Yale team works to overcome obstacles such as access, mistrust, and cultural differences to encourage a more diverse population to join lupus clinical trials. This diversity in research is vital for understanding the disease's impact across various demographics and for advancing treatment options.

Drs. Koumpouras and Ramachandran emphasize the importance of community connection, with initiatives like free skin cancer screenings, support groups, and distributing skincare products to shelters. Future plans include expanding outreach to the refugee population and collaborating with national organizations to adopt effective strategies for health equity.

“We’re fortunate that Connecticut’s small geographic size gives us an opportunity to have impactful outreach across vast communities at risk for rheumatologic-dermatologic disease,” Dr. Koumpouras says. “We can raise community awareness about new treatment options and the expertise that now exists at Yale Medicine to tackle these disorders while advancing the state of the art using clinical trials to further the discovery of new, safer, more effective therapies.”

Their work is not only about immediate patient care but also about inspiring new generations of physicians to continue community engagement and improve the landscape of healthcare for complex rheumatologic-dermatologic diseases.

Read more: https://medicine.yale.edu/dermatology/news-article/improving-health-outcomes-through-community-outreach/