Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Featured Investigator: Amy Eyler



Our center is pleased to introduce Dr. Amy Eyler as our featured investigator.  Dr. Eyler is an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an Investigator at the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis.

Two of Dr. Eyler’s current projects include translating diabetes research. Dr. Eyler is funded as an external evaluator for the Appalachian Diabetes Coalition Project, funded by the CDC and Appalachian Regional Council, to study how over 40 community coalitions in these rural and underserved areas are impacting diabetes prevention and control.  She analyzes the coalition activity reports, interviews stakeholders, and conducts site visits to get a comprehensive perspective of the work that is being done. Recently, this program received funding from Squibb to increase the capacity of coalitions by funding coalition coordinators and expanding evidence-based programming.  Dr. Eyler will be evaluating the impact of this expanded program over the next three years and making recommendations to the funding agencies. 

Another project Dr. Eyler is involved with is the BJC Health Literacy team. In this project, she analyzes data from a follow-up phone intervention to employees identified at risk for diabetes. Employees identified as at-risk through an annual health screening have the option for phone follow up and counseling by nurses and diabetes educators. By analyzing this data, we can identify effectiveness and make recommendations for future interventions on other disease risks factors (e.g. hypertension).

Dr. Eyler is a member of the Center for Diabetes Translation Research and utilizes resources available from the center to support her work.  She says “statistical assistance is a welcome benefit of center affiliation.” She advises researchers to always think about end-use and application of your research.

Dr. Eyler says she gets her best research ideas when she is running on a local St. Louis trail with her Yellow Lab – Harley.

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