Family Medicine to Collaborate on Cardiovascular Risk Prevention Grant

The Wisconsin Partnership Program recently awarded eight interdisciplinary collaborations through its Collaborative Health Sciences Program grants. These grants support interdisciplinary team science targeting complex health problems while advancing health, health care, or health care equity.

One of the projects, “Implementation of Opportunistic Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Using Explainable AI-Drive Abdominal CT Biomarkers,” includes collaborators from the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health: Sarina Schrager, MD, MS, and Mary Henningfield, PhD. The project will use a computer-based tool to automatically identify cardiovascular risk from existing scans and study whether alerting physicians leads to more patients receiving preventive treatment. The principal investigator for this study is John Garrett, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Radiology, Medical Physics, and Biostatics and Medical Informatics.

Schrager is the medical director for the Wisconsin Research and Education Network (WREN). She practices full-spectrum family medicine at Northport Drive clinic and leads faculty development in the department. She is also the editor in chief of Family Medicine, a journal focused on medical education and workforce policy.

Henningfield is the executive director of WREN, conducting research in primary care with the ultimate goal of supporting clinicians and patients to improve health outcomes.

The Wisconsin Partnership Program is a grantmaking program within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health committed to improving health and advancing health equity in Wisconsin through investments in community partnerships, education, and research.