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Academic Facilities
Morehouse School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine and CommonSpirit Health have formed a powerful partnership with Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital and a network of clinical sites across the country. This collaborative effort is dedicated to enhancing diversity within the patient population of the NIH’s Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN).
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By combining their collective expertise and resources, they hope to address the existing gaps in access to advanced diagnostic and research capabilities for individuals with undiagnosed and rare diseases. Through close collaboration with health care providers, the Morehouse team seeks to identify undiagnosed and rare disease patients who are likely to benefit from the advanced diagnostic and research capabilities provided by the UDN.
By leveraging their combined expertise and infrastructure, the referral and evaluation process can be streamlined, ensuring that patients receive timely and accurate diagnoses. These efforts extend beyond diagnosis alone; the team is committed to facilitating ongoing care, treatment, and support for patients throughout their journey.
Morehouse Success Stories
• 63 patents (2009-2019)
• 5,000 primary care providers and rural hospitals in GA received training and assistance in how to adopt and meaningfully use electronic health records.
• A mobile app health network and youth coding program empowering young adults to embrace healthy behaviors and reducing the risk of heart disease.
• Methods for testing the efficacy and safety of natural herbal extracts that can be used as a treatment for HIV and AIDS to improve patient outcomes around the globe.
More In Common Alliance
The More in Common Alliance is a 10-year, $100 million dollar partnership between CommonSpirit Health and Morehouse School of Medicine to transform health equity in the U.S. Under the More in Common umbrella, a research workstream led by Drs. Vani Nilakantan, System Vice President Research, CommonSpirit Health, and Dr. Sandra Harris Hooker, Executive Vice Dean Research and Academic Affairs, have been formed.
The research workstream aims to change the landscape of health care research and drive change based on who we include in clinical research, with focus areas in cardiovascular, cancer, neuroscience, women and infants and population health. The overarching goals are to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in research, enhance joint clinical trials, secure national funding and lead innovation together.
To this end, the group is working on developing a master academic affiliation agreement, has set up an IRB reliance agreement, and has submitted several national grants together. The future state will include large strategic partnerships with industry, life science companies and federal sponsors for technology innovation and precision medicine initiatives.
Partnering To Advance Equitable Care
The Deloitte Health Equity Institute and Morehouse School of Medicine have partnered to establish a multi-tier, multiyear relationship addressing four discrete focus areas; collaboration will include engagement across Morehouse and with an array of other partners, addressing health inequities in physician training and clinical settings, leading to the comprehensive aim of advancing health equity.
Through the More in Common Alliance partnership, CommonSpirit has been identified as a key partner in the implementation and evaluation of the effort. Through the generous gift from Deloitte, the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness and Health Justice and Morehouse Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Dr. Walter Conwell have collaboratively developed plans to advance culturally appropriate care initiatives in training the clinical workforce of the future.
These initiatives will involve the creation, implementation and analysis of the Health Equity Operational Capabilities Assessment of More in Common Alliance training sites. This assessment is critical in understanding the impact of the training developed by Morehouse School of Medicine and will continue to inform advancements in culturally competent care.
