Project Summary
CNY-CAN’s vision is to create a coalition of citizens, patients, formal and informal caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and health systems to guide aging-related research, participate in research and project teams, be champions for patient-centered research, help translate research into practice, and help sustain CNY-CAN as a community resource. Under the Tier I award, CNY-CAN’s initial stakeholders will become educated on patient-centered outcomes research and best practices; learn about research in which CNY-CAN could be engaged; and create a strategic plan defining CNY-CAN’s vision, mission, priorities, structure, governance, and operational policies.
CNY-CAN’s focus is on frailty from a life-span perspective, an issue relevant to patients, caregivers, and citizens of all ages and abilities, as well as to the providers and organizations that serve them. Frailty presents a range of clinical effectiveness research opportunities related to prevention, treatment and management and builds on exploratory research being conducted by the State University of New York’s four academic medical centers (SUNY Upstate, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Downstate, and SUNY Stony Brook).
F.O.C.U.S. (Forging our Community’s United Strength) Greater Syracuse serves as the lead organization for CNY-CAN and is a unique citizen engagement organization formed in 1998 that serves as a neutral convener of citizens and organizations together with government departments and elected officials that work together to promote inclusive, sustainable decision making on a range of civic issues. F.O.C.U.S.’s organizational partners are SUNY Upstate Medical University Division of Geriatrics (research partner), Southwest Community Center (grassroots community partner), and HealtheConnections (health services and population health partner).