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Developing a chatbot to support caregivers of children with chronic conditions

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Being a parent or caregiver to a child can be a stressful experience, with added challenges if a child has a chronic illness or medical condition. A tri-campus team of University of Washington researchers is attempting to help reduce this stress through development of a chatbot that supports caregivers of children with chronic conditions. “We imagine using an established behavioral intervention to help people, to give them tools to problem-solve challenges they encounter as caregivers,” shared Weichao Yuwen, assistant professor…

New funding aims to boost number of inclusive classrooms in Washington state

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Half of children with developmental disabilities in Washington state will never be in a classroom alongside their typically developing peers, despite research showing that inclusive education is beneficial to all children. A recent gift to the University of Washington’s Haring Center for Inclusive Education will support an effort to improve academic and life outcomes for children with developmental disabilities by strengthening high-quality professional development for educators and administrators across the state. Learn More >

Awardees of 2019 pilot research grants report on progress

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The Population Health Initiative awarded six pilot research grants in March 2019 to faculty-led teams from seven different schools and colleges, plus representatives of both UW Bothell and Tacoma. The pilot research grants encourage new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators for projects that address different challenges the UW seeks to address in population health. Since receiving their awards, the six teams have made significant initial progress towards achieving their goals for their yearlong projects. Highlights of their work includes:

Initiative announces 2020 funding call for pilot research grants

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The Population Health Initiative seeks to create a world where all people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives. In support of that vision, the initiative is pleased to announce its 2020 funding call for population health pilot research grants of up to $50,000 each. Applications for this round of funding are due on Friday, January 31, 2020. These grants are intended to encourage the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators for projects that address critical components of grand…

Precision mapping could help predict infections of a widespread tropical disease

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Satellite images, drone photos and even Google Earth could help identify communities most at risk for getting schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is second only to malaria in its global health impact. A team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has discovered clues in the environment that help identify transmission hotspots for schistosomiasis. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses rigorous field sampling and aerial images to precisely map communities that…

New autoinjector device seeks to make medicine more accessible

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Image of the Epinject device

Through student project-turned-startup MedsForAll, University of Washington materials science and engineering alum Shawn Swanson is developing an affordable alternative to the EpiPen. The MedsForAll approach is to separate the drug from the autoinjector device, allowing the device to be sold separately and pharmacists to load it by inserting a glass ampule of the prescribed drug. Swanson and the MedsForAll team have drawn heavily from the expertise and resources of the UW, including the Department of Materials & Engineering, the Engineering…

Winter 2020 undergraduate course highlights UW population health research

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The Population Health Initiative has again partnered with the University of Washington’s Undergraduate Research Program (URP) to offer a series of lectures during winter quarter 2020 that focus on the three pillars of population health: human health, environmental resilience and social and economic equity. The Research Exposed! (General Studies 391) course will feature faculty from a number of disciplines discussing their population health-related research. Undergraduates may take this course for credit (i.e., one credit/quarter; three quarters max). Each lecture is…

Creating mental health friendly cities for youth

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What would it take to make Seattle a mental health friendly city for young people? What innovations and actions might promote adolescent mental health in Seattle, as a model for other cities? The Population Health Initiative recently partnered with the University of Washington’s Global Mental Health program and Urban@UW to host an in-depth conversation with a multidisciplinary group of participants, including researchers, mental health professionals and young people to begin searching for answers to these question. Adolescence brings unique opportunities…

New UW research evaluates tropical forests as a natural climate solution

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A new research project from the University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is investigating tropical forests as a natural climate solution that could help protect human health, create climate-resilient communities and slow the pace of planetary warming. Specifically, the research team aims to estimate the potential benefits of the cooling services that forests provide by quantifying for the first time the large-scale effects of temperature rise on human health and economic productivity. This project was funded by the…

Bill Neukom to chair Population Health Initiative advisory board

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Known for his decades-long leadership of Microsoft’s law and corporate affairs team and then at the American Bar Association, his success as CEO of the San Francisco Giants and founder/CEO of the World Justice Project, Bill Neukom (pictured) will now chair the external advisory board for the University of Washington Population Health Initiative. “This is a bold and imaginative initiative of the president of the University of Washington to identify and build up the essential ingredients for functional communities —…