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Employment Opportunities
What is University Renal
Research and Education Association (URREA)?
URREA is a not-for-profit
foundation whose purpose is to conduct epidemiologic, clinical, and economic
studies of kidney and related diseases. URREA is dedicated to the distribution
of clinical and economic information and analysis for use by the U.S.
and international health care communities. URREA is also dedicated to
the education of new investigators in the field of epidemiology and outcomes
research.
Who
is URREA?
URREA was founded in Ann Arbor
Michigan by Philip J. Held, PhD, a nationally recognized leader in the field
of renal research. An economist by training, Dr. Held's 22-year professional
career has centered around the development and analysis of large databases
and, in the last 18 years, has focused on the study of patients with kidney
failure. Dr. Held has published extensively in medical journals on a wide
range of topics related to the epidemiology and economics of End Stage Renal
Disease (ESRD) including the dose of dialysis, the relationship between
the length of dialysis and mortality, the impact of HLA mismatches on kidney
transplant survival, and initial predictors of mortality in patients with
ESRD.
In May 2002, Dr. Friedrich K. Port became president of URREA upon the retirement
of the organization's founding president, Dr. Philip J. Held. As of May
1, Dr. Held moved into his new position as Senior Researcher with URREA.
The transfer in leadership is a natural one, as Dr. Held and Dr. Port have
collaborated closely on medical outcomes research for many years. Their
collaboration has spanned over 14 years, including work on the U.S. Renal
Data System (USRDS) and many other projects.
Dr. Port was Professor of Medicine (nephrology) and Epidemiology at the
University of Michigan Schools of Medicine and Public Health for 27 years.
Dr. Port brings to URREA his international reputation for medical outcomes
research, specializing in clinical epidemiology, transplantation, and dialysis.
He served as director of the Michigan Kidney Registry from 1984 to 1994,
as deputy director of the USRDS Coordinating Center from 1988 to 1999, and
as co-director of the University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost
Center from 1993 to 2002.
What
are URREA's areas of interest and research?
As an organization, URREA is
focused on End Stage Renal Disease and related diseases, and organ tranplantation.
URREA has a unique combination of expertise in the design and execution
of research studies, including primary data collection and the development
of large clinical databases and state of the art statistical analyses. URREA
manages and directs a wide range of major research projects including:
-
The Scientific Registry
of Transplant Recipients (SRTR): The Scientific Registry of Transplant
Recipients contract was awarded to URREA by the Health Resources and Services
Administration in October 2000 following a national competition.
The SRTR is mandated to perform the analyses that measure the efficiency
and fairness of transplantation. The research agenda of the SRTR includes
evaluation of the process by which patients gain access to transplant
waiting lists, analysis of patient outcomes while on a waiting list, evaluation
of the allocation of the limited organs, and evaluation of patient outcomes
following transplantation. In addition, the SRTR is charged with assessing
and monitoring the quality of the data collected by the OPTN and assessing
OPO performance.
The research findings of the SRTR are available to patients, their families,
clinicians and the transplant community, the public, and the government.
General transplant-related information as well as OPO- (Organ Procurement
Organization) and transplant center-specific statistics can be found at
www.ustransplant.org, the official
web site of the SRTR.
- DOPPS (Dialysis Outcomes
and Practice Patterns Study): Funded by Amgen, the major goal of
this study is to investigate the impact of practice patterns on patient
outcomes in the real world of hemodialysis in the United States. Data
collection for DOPPS is fully operational with a national random sample
of 160 facilities and an average of 4800 patients participating in this
study. Data Collection for this phase of the DOPPS study are complete
and analysis of the collected data are underway.
Below are DOPPS newsletters that were sent out periodically to provide
a snapshot of information about the study and study progress. They are
provided in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open
them.
If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, click on the Adobe button below to
download the latest version for free.
- I-DOPPS (International
Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study): Funded by Amgen,
the main objective of this project is to investigate the relationships
between hemodialysis practice patterns and patient outcomes in Europe.
Data collection for IDOPPS is managed in Europe by Quintiles Transnational
Inc. This project is currently gathering Practice pattern information
from a random sample of 20 facilities in each country (France, Italy,
Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom). An average of 3,000 patients
have been randomly selected from these facilities for participation
in I-DOPPS. Data will be collected from these facilities for two years.
- J-DOPPS (Japan Dialysis
Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study): Similar to DOPPS and I-DOPPS,
this is a study of patient outcomes and hemodialysis therapy in Japan.
This study is funded by Kirin Pharmaceuticals, and is now finishing
recruiting 60 randomly selected facilities, and preparing to begin data
collection. This study is scheduled to study 60 dialysis facilities,
and an average of 1,800 participating dialysis patients. As in the I-DOPPS
study, data will be collected for two years.
- ESRD Managed Care Demonstration
Evaluation: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS,
formerly HCFA) has funded a demonstration project which allowed patients
with End Stage Renal Disease the option of enrolling in one of the Medicare
managed care plans selected to participate (The "Demonstration"). Also
funded by CMS, the evaluation project explores the impact of this demonstration
on ESRD patient costs, outcomes, and service delivery in a real-world
setting. The Lewin Group in Falls Church, VA is the prime contractor
for the evaluation project and URREA is a subcontractor, with collaboration
from researchers at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The
demonstration sites (Kaiser Permanente in California and Health Options
Inc. in Florida) enrolled over 1,500 patients from 1998 through 2001.
For more details on the demonstration, go to http://www.hcfa.gov/cop/2c.asp.
The evaluation was originally scheduled to end in May 2002, but will
likely continue for another 1-2 years. A Report to Congress summarizing
the findings of the evaluators has been submitted. Once this report
has been approved, publication of these results will be forthcoming.
Related
Links:
Here are links related to research
on kidney disease, organ transplantation, URREA's mission and projects,
and our sponsors.
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