Ashby Walker, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Policy, and her colleagues presented “Healthcare Utilization for Publicly Insured Children with Type 1 Diabetes in Florida and Texas” in a moderated poster discussion at the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 76th Scientific Sessions in New Orleans on June 10-14. The ADA’s annual gathering is the world’s largest diabetes meeting, offering more than 2,500 research presentations on diabetes research, treatment, and care to some 15,000 attendees from 131 countries.
Walker’s poster was selected by the conference planning committee to be showcased as “Advances in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes” in the ADA’s pediatrics division.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to share results from this multidisciplinary research collaboration,” Walker said. “The findings provide new insight into disparate health outcomes for economically vulnerable children with Type 1 Diabetes and how to direct interventions accordingly.” Walker, who also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida, is a medical sociologist with a focus on health disparities in pediatric diabetes and the role of social capital in determining health outcomes.
The initial funding for this research was provided by the Pediatric Workgroups, a collaboration among the University of Florida’s Department of Pediatrics, Department of Health Outcomes & Policy, Institute for Child Health Policy, and Family Data Center. Walker’s workgroup members included co-PI Desmond Schatz, M.D., professor and associate chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UF, medical director of the UF Diabetes Institute, and current president of the ADA; Betsy Shenkman, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Health Outcomes & Policy, director of UF’s Institute for Child Health Policy, and co-director of the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium; Ronny Bell, Ph.D., M.S., a professor of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Jon Shuster, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Policy and a faculty member at the Institute for Child Health Policy; Heather Morris, Ph.D., research scientist in the Department of Health Outcomes and Policy; Yijun Sun, Ph.D., statistical research coordinator at the Institute for Child Health Policy; Mike Haller, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UF Health; and Henry Rohrs, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UF Health. The group’s findings grew, in part, out of the Department of Health Outcomes & Policy’s access to Medicaid data from both Texas and Florida.