Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) has dedicated $3.2 million for a new, large clinical study to address food insecurity among its at-risk members who also have hypertension. The study will measure how to best help people who are food insecure achieve better health through nutrition. UNC-Chapel Hill researchers are leading the study, in conjunction with the UNC Health Alliance, UNC Health’s statewide, clinically integrated physician network and population health services organization. Blue Cross NC, utilizing support of its data scientists and analysts, is collaborating as a co-principal investigator of the study.
Study co-leaders include Darren DeWalt, MD, MPH, the John R. and Helen B. Chambliss Distinguished Professor of Medicine and division chief of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Alice Ammerman, DrPH, the Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Seth Berkowitz, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Medicine and member of the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
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