Grants Awarded Four Smith County Doctors

TYLER – Four healthcare professional at UT Health Northeast have been awarded over $1 million in grants. The grants go to Paul McGaha, D.O.; David Lakey, M.D.; Rodolpho Amaro, M.D.; and Christie Osuagwu, FNP-C, Ph.D. The largest of the grants goes to Dr. McGaha, associate professor of community health and preventive medicine at UT Health and deputy director of The Center for Rural Community Health. He received a one-year, renewable grant of $524,260 for the Texas Home Visiting Program from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The Home Visiting Program matches trained home visitors with pregnant women, young children, and their families to provide access to a coordinated system of care. Studies have shown this program significantly reduced child abuse and neglect, behavioral problems, and difficulties with reasoning and thinking skills.

Dr. Lakey is senior vice president for population health at UT Health and associate vice chancellor for population health at The University of Texas System. He received a one-year $501,787 grant for the Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers and Babies.This grant is designed to improve the outcomes of babies born in Texas and is a statewide collaborative of more than 150 healthcare providers, scientists, hospitals, state agencies, advocates, and insurers. It was awarded by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Dr. Amaro received a one-year, $37,044 grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to provide a mental health coordinator in UT Health’s Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. This coordinator,will screen adolescent and adult patients with cystic fibrosis, as well as the parents of children with CF, for depression and anxiety. The coordinator also will provide age-appropriate resources and counseling to patients and their families who need it. The effectiveness of this effort will be evaluated at the end of the year, with the possibility that the grant may be renewed for up to two additional years.

And Dr. Osuagwu, a certified family nurse practitioner at UT Health’s North Tyler Clinic who has a doctorate in public health, received a one-year, $4,000 grant to provide “Healthy Beginnings,” a nutrition education program to economically disadvantaged and under-served children and families in Lamar County. The grant was awarded by St. Joseph’s Community Foundation in Paris, Texas.