North Florida Foundation for Research and Education

A nonprofit va Research and Education Foundation, the North Florida Foundation for Research and Education, Inc. (nffre) was established to administer and facilitates Research and Education programs within the North florida/south Georgia veterans health system (nf/sgvhs) located in gainesville Florida. Researchers at the nf/sgvhs conduct investigator- initiated and pharmaceutical/device sponsor-initiated trials. Nffre benefits va health care and strives to provide support and flexible funding mechanisms to support va researchers and collaborators while offering additional opportunities for our veterans to participate in clinical trials. Our Research is dedicated to investigating a variety of ailments afflicting the nation's veterans. Nffre plays an important role supporting va investigators and serves to facilitate collaborative efforts with industry sponsors, academic institutions, other federal agencies, voluntary health organizations, nonprofit professional societies, and for-profit companies to conduct clinical trials, test therapeutic interventions, support lab based projects and collect data for outcomes projects. During fiscal year 2022, nffre fostered many sponsored studies conducted at nf/sgvhs with industry collaborators including abbvie, bayerhealthcare, novartis, glaxo smith kline, astrazeneca, sanofi, gilead sciences, janssen, biomonde, amgen, and nffre managed over 20 active cradas and initiated 16 new cradas (va collaborative Research and development agreements). A few examples of nffre's program service accomplishment at nf/sgvhs: nffre provides Research support for carsten schmalfuss, md who specializes in cardiology services at nf/sg vhs. One of his long term studies is women's ischemia trial to reduce events in non-obstructive cad (warrior) trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized, blinded outcome evaluation (probe design) evaluating imt vs. usual care (uc) in 4,422 symptomatic women with ischemia but no obstructive cad. This study is being conducted to determine whether aggressive medication treatment to modify risk factors in women with coronary arteries showing no severe obstruction but with cardiac symptoms (i.e., chest pain) will reduce their likelihood of dying, having a heart attack, stroke or being hospitalized. The results of this study will provide the data necessary to inform future guidelines regarding how best to treat this growing population of women, and ultimately improve their cardiac health and quality of life and reduce health-care costs. Anita wokhlu, md is also part of cardiology services at nf/sg vhs. She is actively involved in a study with the primary objective of comparing the effect of testosterone replacement therapy and a placebo on the incidence of mace in middle-aged and older hypogonadal men at risk for cv disease. Michael bubb, md, active in rheumatologic Research, currently has a trial to evaluate the impact of a study drug, either in monotherapy or with stable methotrexate, on mri outcomes in subjects with active psa with up to 5 years of disease duration (since diagnosis).

Nffre's contributions to va Education conducted at nf/sg vhs included: medical Education. Nffre manages the annual richard m. whittington lecture series, which is funded to support medical Education at nf/sgvhs. Also, dr. michael bubb's proposal titled incorporation of patient reported outcomes data in the care of us veterans with rheumatoid arthritis. The overall goal of this proposal was to address barriers to the use of patient reported outcome (pro) data in the dept. Of veterans affairs (va) health care system. The hypothesis was that the availability of these data in the form of the patient-completed mdhaq/rapid3 questionnaire will change patient- centric outcomes such as patient reported well-being, patient satisfaction and medication compliance. The targeted population was us veterans with rheumatoid arthritis who receive medical care within the North florida/south Georgia veterans integrated service network (nf/sg visn). Nffre worked with the creative forces network. The mission of the creative forces network is to improve the health, wellness, and quality of life of trauma-exposed military service members and veterans, as well as their families and caregivers, by increasing knowledge of and access to clinical creative arts therapies and community arts engagement. The program has three components: 1. Clinical. Creative forces places creative arts therapies at the core of patient-centered care in military medical facilities, and in a telehealth program for patients in rural and remote areas; 2. Community engagement. Creative forces provides increased community-based arts opportunities for military and veteran family populations around clinical site locations, and; 3. Capacity. Creative forces invests in capacity-building efforts, including the development of manuals, training, and Research on the impacts and benefits of the treatment methods, as well as the development of an online national resource center/enterprise software platform.