Innovative Research

Helping People Live Well through Research Innovation

Research specialists at Aurora Health Care are committed to providing cutting edge research in the laboratory, integrating this knowledge at the patient's bedside, and communicating this valuable patient-centered research to the community. Beneficial patient-centered outcomes are the focus of medical research at Aurora Health Care.

Types of medical research programs at Aurora Health Care include: biomedical research, personalized medicine, regenerative medicine, the Center for Urban Population Health, and the Aurora University of Wisconsin Medical Group. All our medical research and clinical studies have the goal of creating innovative ways to help people live well and improve their quality of life.

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research: Integrating Clinical Research into Patient Care

There are five dimensions of outcomes for medical research. A study or clinical research project may produce an outcome in one or multiple dimensions.

• Individual Patient - improvements in the patient experience/individual patient care
• Community - benefit to the community through awareness, education or services
• System - improved efficiencies in institutional processes or operating costs (ROI)
• Specific application - an improved or new product, drug, technology, or device
• Communications - A dissemination of knowledge through scholarship and publication, contributions in the form of theory, standards of practice, refined techniques, policies, and procedures in the Health Care field

Patient-Centered Medical Research Outcomes at Aurora

• Firsts: CORE valve, oral MS drug trial.
• Major site for newly developed cardiac mitral valve clip (2010 Wall Street Journal).
• One of only 4 sites in the world offering cellular therapy (TIL) trial for malignant melanoma patients.
• Collaboration with GE Healthcare to evaluate 3D imaging technique in atrial fibrillation ablation.
• Discovery and characterization of a novel molecule (CTLA-4) and its corresponding gene in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Highlighted nationally for its Biorepository program Open-Source Robotic Biorepository and Informatics Technology (ORBIT).
• Developed the Wisconsin Medical Entrepreneurship Foundation to accelerate translation of medical innovations and develop a business model for growth in Wisconsin.
• Focus on identifying what determines health, well being and disease in certain groups, forging partnerships with community health and academic experts to design and implement preventive interventions and measuring those interventions' effectiveness.
• Identified three areas in particular need - maternal and infant health, high-risk youth behaviors and violence prevention, and healthy aging.
• Implemented health programs including:
• Safe Mom, Safe Baby - innovative program aimed at identifying and addressing intimate-partner violence for pregnant women
• Group prenatal care - project aimed at improving access to quality prenatal care for vulnerable pregnant teens by bringing the care to them, in a supportive and group setting, right in their school
• Milwaukee Health Report - uses data from an Aurora Community Survey and other sources to define health disparities in Milwaukee and the key factors that may affect future health.
• Catalog of Initiatives - address disparities in birth outcomes and infant mortality. A source of information on what organizations, research and programs are addressing infant health in Wisconsin. This is a resource for anyone seeking to build community-academic partnerships in the area of maternal and infant health.
• Hundreds of publications/abstracts in Scientific and Professional Journals
• Demand for fellowship and resident research training
• Aurora Health Care educates 2,000 students, residents and fellows annually
• Grants, contracts, intellectual property and equity support ROI
• Magnet hospitals (nursing and research)
• Member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)