AUA MPH Alumna Publishes Her Master Project in the Journal of Interventional Cardiology

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Master of Public Health (MPH) alumna of the  American University of Armenia (AUA)  and lead author Seda Aghabekyan, MD, MPH (2009) and her coauthors Michael E. Thompson, MS, DrPH, Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Adjunct Associate Professor at AUA and Lusine Abrahamyan, MD, PhD, MPH (2003), Collaborator at the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative, University of Toronto, report in their manuscript Medication Noncompliance and Patient Satisfaction Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Armenia that “nearly one-third of patients undergoing coronary revascularization in Armenia do not follow the recommended post-surgery medication regimen.  The burden of out-of pocket expenses is associated with a more than two-fold increased odds of medication non-compliance.  Patient satisfaction and other measures of the relationship between patient and provider showed no effect on the odds of medication non-compliance.  Disconcertingly, healthier patients had reduced odds of medication noncompliance (i.e., were more compliant) than less healthy patients.”

These findings were published 21 May 2012 in the advance online access (“early view”) of the Journal of Interventional Cardiology, a prestigious internationally ranked peer-reviewed academic journal (see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-8183/earlyview).

As Varduhi Petrosyan, MS, PhD, Director of the Center for Health Services Research and Development and Associate Dean of the College of Health Sciences (CHS), notes, “this manuscript arose from a master thesis project grounded in CHS’s long running partnership for hospital quality improvement with the Nork Marash Medical Center (NMMC).  The partnership has produced a number of peer-reviewed publications which enrich our knowledge of treatment methods and outcomes of coronary artery disease in Armenia and confirm that the quality of services at NMMC is on par with its international peers.”

The American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia. Founded in 1991, AUA is affiliated with the University of California. Through teaching, research, and public service, AUA serves Armenia and the region by supplying high-quality, graduate and undergraduate education, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting democratic values.

 

The American University of Armenia is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, 985 Atlantic Avenue, #100, Alameda, CA 94501, 510-748-9001.

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