Pioneer Grantees Top RWJF’s Most Influential Research Articles of 2011

BY BRIAN C. QUINN, PHD, team director and senior program officer, Pioneer Portfolio

And the winner is …

We were quite proud and excited by the recent news that the work of two Pioneer Portfolio grantees placed first and second in the Most Influential RWJF Research Articles of 2011, as announced by David Colby, vice president of research and evaluation at RWJF, in January’s Evidence Matters.  

Coming in at number one, The Use of Twitter to Track Levels of Disease Activity and Public Concern in the U.S. During the Influenza A H1N1 Pandemic, published in May’s PLoS ONE. Dr. Phil Polgreen and colleagues at the University of Iowa monitored disease activity during the H1N1 outbreak by analyzing public messages or "tweets" on Twitter. The study established a model for monitoring disease outbreaks in real time.

Second place went to Project ECHO’s Outcomes of Treatment for Hepatitis C Virus Infection by Primary Care Providers, published in June’s New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sanjeev Arora and colleagues demonstrated that through Project ECHO’s transformative model of health education and delivery, primary care providers can be trained via video communications and real-time, case-based learning to manage complex chronic conditions formerly outside their expertise, thus expanding their ability to bring better care to more people in their own communities. By putting the best available medical knowledge into the hands of everyday clinical practitioners, Project ECHO exponentially expands the capacity of the health care workforce to provide high-quality care in local communities.

Congratulations to these grantees for their influential and innovative work to transform health and health care. We’re proud to call you part of the Pioneer family.

And a big thank you to all who voted or helped spread the word about these and the other great research articles in 2011’s top 25 list. You can still join in the conversation by using #Final_5 on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to discuss the winners and congratulate all the grantees who participated.

While you’re reviewing the Most Influential Research Articles of 2011, take a look at the top three most viewed Pioneering Ideas blog posts from 2011:

• Focus on the Pig: RWJF Chief Technology and Information Officer Steve Downs recaps the visions of industrial designers to re-imagine the environments in which we live, work and play for better health.
• What Does mEvidence Need to Look Like?: Vice President of Information Technology Al Shar discusses the hype and hope of mHealth and the need to develop evidence that supports its potential.
• Despite Political Uncertainties, an Emerging Model Shows Health Care Transformation is Possible: John Lumpkin, senior vice president and director of the health care group, discusses how Project ECHO can help us do more through the “force multiplier effect” of knowledge networks that create a health care system “without walls.”

We look forward to exploring more pioneering ideas with you in 2012 and highlighting the important work of our grantees. Keep checking back or better yet, sign up to receive Pioneer’s content and funding alerts and future Pioneering Ideas posts.