Welcome to LINC!
With leadership from three academic medical centers, LINC is an interprofessional consortium of healthcare professionals and researchers at 9 organizations with expertise in clinical research, biostatistics, hospital medicine, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, medication management, post-acute care, and community service. LINC investigators provide care to diverse patient populations with a focused interest in COPD and/or Heart Failure.
Our Missions
- Improve functional health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and/or heart failure (HF) and for the frail elderly by using a new care delivery model with formally trained community health workers who serve as Healthcare Coordinators to deliver evidence-based care in patients’ homes resulting in decreased hospital admissions and emergency visits and lower overall health costs.
- Extend primary care into patient’s homes by integrating Healthcare Coordinators into primary care practices using embedded case managers for supervision and information technology to optimize communication especially at times of hospital discharge.
- Develop a model for workforce development, training and deployment by creating a standardized curriculum for training community health workers as Healthcare Coordinators (including modules for COPD, HF, medication management including reconciliation, physical activity promotion and falls prevention, and connection to social services).
- Build a collaborative of medical centers in Illinois that engages community and national resources and government-funded agencies to form a team that will allow the continuing improvement of this care model and application to other patient populations.
- Develop implementation and dissemination tools for primary care practice providers so that this model of care can be rapidly disseminated with high fidelity across practices in the U.S.
LINC Members
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System
The University of Chicago Medicine
American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP)
Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago (RHAMC)
CJE SeniorLife
SimplyRehab
Erie Family Health Center
AgeOptions
