Distinguished Professor
Duke University School of Nursing
Duke University School of Nursing
Durham, North Carolina, United States
Dr. Paula Tanabe, PhD, RN is the Laurel B. Chadwick Distinguished Professor in the School of Nursing at Duke University. Dr. Tanabe practiced as an emergency department (ED) nurse and ED Clinical Nurse Specialist for 25 years. During this time, she developed her passion for improving the care of individuals with SCD who experience a VOE and seek pain relief in the ED. Over her lengthy research career, she has conducted trials to document and understand the problem, as well as to develop and test interventions to improve ED care. She conducted several projects focused on dissemination and implementation of evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD), as well as two separate randomized controlled trials to compare treatment of vaso-occlusive episodes (VOE) with individualized pain plans vs. weight based opioid pain protocols in the ED. Dr. Tanabe co-led an eight-site implementation science trial to embed individualized pain plans for the treatment of VOE in the EMR and in the patient portal, the ALIGN trial. She has also conducted research to better understand the needs of individuals with SCD and super-high ED utilization.
Dr. Tanabe is a nationally recognized expert on improving the treatment of individuals with SCD in the ED. She was a member of the NHLBI task force that developed the “Evidence-Based Management of Sickle Cell Disease: Expert Panel Report, 2014”. She has received funding from the following institutes at the National Institutes of Health: NHLBI, NINR, NIMHD, as well as from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She is a member of the Medical Research Committee tasked by the NC Governor’s Council on SCD to improve the care of SCD in EDs across North Carolina. In this group, she has led the development of a toolbox for dissemination to EDs across NC that will aid in improving ED management of VOE.
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