URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

Additionally, new technology and an ever- expanding world of research will provide many

different learning

experiences for the students at URI.

Elizabeth Roberts Director Academic Health Collaborative

as cost. Supporting patient self-management for chronic conditions, for example, creates more opportunities for virtual care and remote monitoring. “The pandemic has also revealed fundamental flaws in the U.S. health systems’ financial dependence on elective procedures, many of which were halted during the pandemic,” said Rambur. “As a result, COVID-19 has sparked greater provider interest in value-based payments and, in some cases, fixed-revenue global budgets because they are not financially dependent on achieving a certain volume of selected procedures and can instead focus on the health needs of those they serve.” According to Elizabeth Roberts, URI’s new director of the Academic Health Collaborative (AHC) and former lieutenant governor for the State of Rhode Island, COVID-19 paved the way for many research opportunities at the University level, across the state, and around the world. Roberts began her role as director of the AHC in late April 2020. She said her goal is to add value to the colleges that are part of the AHC — Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Sciences — by bringing students and faculty

together through education, clinical training and research. Another of Robert’s goals centers on giving the University the opportunity to utilize its resources in an effort to assist with health care throughout the state. “I want the state as a whole, and specifically the policy leaders in the state, to tap the amazing resources we have at URI,” Roberts said. “We are seeing some of that with the COVID-19 virus, there’s quite a bit of involvement at the Department of Health from all three colleges.” With this, Roberts said, the education and research currently being conducted at the University surely will make a difference in the future. “This is where I think the University of Rhode Island has an enormous role to play,” Roberts said. “If you think about the professions that we educate: nurses, advanced-practice nurses, community and research-based pharmacists, psychologists, kinesiologists and more, there is research going on now. As you look to the future there are going to be some very interesting discussions about how to

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