Jane Little, MD, professor of medicine in the division of hematology and member of the UNC Blood Research Center, has received an Innovation Pilot Award from the UNC Center for Health Innovation for “OneSCD UNC: Improving Care for People with Sickle Cell Disease in North Carolina.” William Scheidler, MD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry, is co-PI of the project.
With an emerging population of adults coping with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), there is an increased need for expert management of the disease and its related factors to improve health outcomes and quality of life. However, many adults with SCD live in areas without subspecialty expertise, an issue acutely affecting the ~6,000 North Carolinians dispersed throughout the Piedmont and coastal regions.
Little and Scheidler aim to standardize screening, improve adherence to guideline-based care, and build personalized care plans by developing and implementing an integrated care model for SCD.