DREAM | Emory School of Medicine

About Us

The DREAM (Diabetes, Research, Education, and Action for Minorities) Project was created to develop, implement, and test a Community Health Worker (CHW) Program to improve diabetes control and diabetes-related health complications. We believe that community health workers who can give culturally-tailored health information can provide supplementary resources in addition to the usual standard of care. The program originated in New York City and is now being implemented in the metropolitan Atlanta area to serve the local South Asian community. As the program expanded into the Atlanta area, it has also expanded its focus to include hypertension management.

Goals

Provide research training, technical assistance, and capacity-building to community and clinical sites in Georgia for implementation of culturally tailored, evidenced-based CHW programs to improve HTN and diabetes management for South Asians.
Use a multi-theoretical framework to test the effectiveness of a CHW-led intervention compared to usual care among South Asian individuals with diabetes and uncontrolled HTN in Atlanta.
Apply RE-AIM and CFIR frameworks to delineate factors influencing reach, appropriateness, fidelity, adoption, and maintenance of the intervention within clinical and community settings to optimize intervention replication.

We Are Recruiting!

We are still recruiting for the DREAM study. If you are South Asian in Atlanta with diabetes and hypertension, please email Christina Gibbs, project manager.

We would love to work with you to manage your diabetes and hypertension.

DREAM During COVID

Since the coronavirus made landfall in the United States, our team has transitioned to a completely virtual community-based program. Using phone calls and video-conferencing software, we have created a successful program that has reached vulnerable populations by removing some of the barriers and costs that come from transportation to group classes.

Through virtual presentations, group fitness sessions, and question and answer periods, we have created a comprehensive program that addresses diabetes and hypertension management.

Cooking Tips

Feel free to download our cooking recipes for making delicious South Asian healthy meals.

Chickpea Salad; Hot & Sour Chicken Soup recipes

Staff

Megha Shah, MD, MSc Atlanta Site PI

Dr. Shah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine at Emory School of Medicine. She is a family physician and health services researcher with substantial experience partnering with the local South Asian community in Atlanta. Her clinical practice is in Dunwoody, GA, where 20% of her patient population is South Asian. Dr. Shah will oversee all Emory EHR data extraction at the Emory site in collaboration with Drs. Joyce Ho, a data scientist, and Unjali Gujral, an epidemiologist.

Nazneen Akhter, BA Community Health Worker

Nazneen Akhter, BA is a Community Health Worker in the DREAM Atlanta project. She is currently working under the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory School of Medicine. She has previously worked as a Nutritionist in Bangladesh and has also been a member of ASHA (Atlanta South Asian Health Alliance) since 2017. She is passionate about community health work and as an interviewer, she will recruit participants and provide them with an action plan, oversee the implementation of the action plan, write progress reports, and provide one on one interventions.

Zohra Amin, BS Community Health Worker

Zohra does community Recruitment in a research program for South Asian community people who have uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension. Zohra previously worked for the South Asian Health Alliance research program for Emory, Family Medicine department. She currently also works for Family Wellness Center and Peachtree Christian Health Center. She graduated in Food and Nutrition from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Sakila Nasrin, MD Community Health Worker

Sakila works in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine. She has experience working with the South Asian community in different health events for more than a decade. As a CHW, she engages with the local community to recruit participants, provide educational health sessions, and guide participants through a plan to help them create life-long behavior changes to improve their diabetes and hypertension. Sakila is a Medical Science graduate with an MD. She has previous research experience specializing in familial hypercholesterolemia.

Christina Gibbs, MS DREAM Project Coordinator

Christina works in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine. She supervises the community health workers, coordinates with each clinical site, and oversees the implementation of the intervention. Christina graduated with an MS in Global Health. She has previous experience working in research focusing on South Asian populations.