Dr. Miller Receives NIH Grant to Study Adolescent Contraception Access in the ED Setting

Melissa Miller, MD, MsCR, Children's Mercy Kansas City Emergency Department, was recently awarded a two-year $468,191 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21) from National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

Dr. Miller’s “Multi-level Emergency Department Intervention to Reduce Pregnancy Risk Among Adolescents” study will focus on the outcomes of increasing contraception initiation among adolescents in the emergency department (ED) setting. Her team will train ED advanced practice nurses to provide counseling utilizing motivational interviewing strategies to facilitate uptake of ED-based contraception or clinic referral among sexually active females aged 15-18 years.

“The emergency department (ED) is a non-traditional setting that is well-positioned to provide reproductive care, as almost 19 million adolescents seek care in EDs each year, many are amenable to receiving care in this setting, and the ED is often the only or primary contact with the health care system for the highest-risk youth,” Dr. Miller said.

The data they gather will inform a future study where the team will evaluate efficacy among contraceptive subtypes and identify characteristics that enhance or inhibit contraception use.

“This project is significant because the national burden of adolescent childbearing ($9.4 billion for one year alone) is so great, even a small reduction in incidence should lead to significant cost reductions and reduce generational cycles of poverty and poor health outcomes,” Dr. Miller said.

Co-investigators on the study include Kathy Goggin, PhD, Vincent Staggs, PhD, Stephani Stancil, APRN, PhD, as well as others from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pittsburgh.