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The Studying-Acting-Learning & Teaching Network (SALT-Net)

SALT-Net is a regional Practice-Based Research Network that began with seed funding from the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.

SALT-Net consists of both core and general members. Core members are those who are directly involved with the planning of and/or participation in network studies. There are presently 15 practices that qualify as core members. General members consist of our population of volunteer community faculty, who are invited to participate in all studies, surveys, and educational activities. This broad network consists of roughly 200 physicians spread across a broad region of upstate New York, and dispersed among a variety of practice types.

Primary Care Physicians in the Central New York region who are interested in hearing more about this network may contact either John Epling, MD, MSEd, FAAFP (eplingj@upstate.edu) or Christopher P. Morley, PhD, MA, CAS (morleycp@upstate.edu), to discuss your questions and interests.

Research and Funded Projects

Research Publications

SALT-Net has conducted or participated in several projects with partial or complete funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), including:

  • Supplementary recruitment for a joint Family Medicine/Psychiatry project recruiting cases and controls for the largest genetic case-control cohort study of schizophrenia ever conducted
  • A completed qualitative investigation on Vitamin D Deficiency screening and treatment norms in the region. This topic was also identified by SALT-Net community members as one that needed exploration. Results have been published in the journal Qualitative Health Research.

PBRN Projects

SUNY Upstate's Department of Family Medicine currently operates a regional quality improvement project targeting breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening: Increasing Cancer Screenin through Academic Detailing and Practice Facilitation. This project is supported by Cooperative Agreement DP003879 and DP006102 between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New York State Department of Health/Health Research, Inc. Original funding began in 2013, and has continued annually.

SALT-Net has partnered with the University of Rochester Clinical and Translation Science Institute's UNYTE Translational Research Network, as well as University at Buffalo's UNYNET PBRN, to engage primary care practices in this quality improvement project, focused on increasing cancer screening in Central and Western New York.

The Increasing Cancer Screenin through Academic Detailing and Practice Facilitation project has reached over 30 primary care practices across the region.

Dissemination

An additional component of SALT-Net is the dissemination of knowledge and training gained from collaborative activities.

The Department of Pediatrics has been a key partner in this endeavor. Together, we have developed a large CME series focused upon youth and young adults (aged 14-25) with developmental disabilities who are transitioning from pediatric to adult care settings. The CME module will instruct primary care providers on best practices in managing guardianship determination and documentation during the transition between provider types. See http://healthytransitionsny.org/ for more information.

Additionally, SALT-Net has partnered with HWApps to host CME materials developed from the Increasing Cancer Screenin through Academic Detailing and Practice Facilitation  project.

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