Cleveland Va Medical Research And Education Foundation

Dr. Varun sundaram-nih award (national heart, lung, and blood institute) "metabolic therapy for atrial fibrillation" atrial fibrillation (af) is the most common arrhythmia in the united states. Af is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, cardiovascular mortality, and significantly impairs quality of life in most patients. There is a critical need to investigate the clinical effectiveness of new cardiometabolic drugs, repurposing potential of old diabetic drugs and bariatric surgery in the management of atrial fibrillation the aim is to perform comparative effectiveness research investigating the role of new cardiometabolic agents including glp-1ra, sglt2i and repurposing potential of metformin alongside bariatric surgery in reduction of af burden. They are using the veteran affairs nationwide electronic healthcare records which provides a unique opportunity to perform cer of af at the population level due to the availability of long term follow data (> 600,000 af patients with ~7 years of follow up) with minimal missingness in follow up. The results from this study are likely to yield substantive new insights into the role of cardiometabolic agents and bariatric surgery in the reducing the burden af and provide hypothesis generating findings which may eventually lead to the design of new pragmatic clinical trials in secondary prevention of af.

Dr. Mary kristi henzel-paralyzed veterans of america award "insensate and unprotected: development & testing of footsafe technology for prevention of injuries caused by inadvertent lower extremity displacements from wheelchair footplates in veterans with sci/d" wheelchairs give veterans with paralysis due to spinal cord injury (sci) freedom to move and better quality of life. While wheelchairs help such veterans get around, they can cause injury if the veteran cannot feel or move if their leg or foot falls off or sits wrongly on the wheelchair foot rest. Injuries have included broken legs, pressure ulcers, such bad scrapes that a vet's leg had to be cut off, and one veteran may have died from severe bleeding due to this while on blood thinners. The goal of this study is to improve our footsafe foot pressure and position warning system to improve ability to sense foot and wheelchair motion, improve our ability to alert to foot displacements while driving indoors with different footwear, and we will work with veterans with spinal cord injury and seating therapists to understand how a smartphone app for footsafe needs to work to be usable and helpful.

Other research and service activities.