Swinomish Tribe collaborates with the UW to prepare for climate change

Posted on October 29, 2019

A new research project led by the Swinomish Tribe and the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences is identifying strategies informed by indigenous values to adapt to climate change. Some of the adaptation strategies adopted to date include adding climate-change education to the Tribe’s educational curriculum on traditional harvest practices and increasing aquaculture capacity to help protect wild clam beds from rising sea levels. The results of this project could inform how tribes across the United…

Assessing community well-being post disaster via physical activity data

Posted on October 17, 2019

New research from an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington researchers funded by the Population Health Initiative found that biking and walking data may be useful to understand the impact of a disaster on a community and its recovery progress. The research team used counts of the daily number of bicyclists and pedestrians on four commuter and recreation trails around Houston in two six-week spans, before and after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, to test how storm damage impacted levels of…

Initiative-supported UW Data Collaborative seeks to foster data sharing

Posted on October 15, 2019

Fostering collaboration and data sharing is the impetus behind the new UW Data Collaborative (UWDC), initiated and hosted by the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and in partnership with the Population Health Initiative, Urban@UW and the Student Technology Fee program. The collaborative seeks to broaden the potential impact of high-security confidential and proprietary datasets by making them more widely available to the University of Washington research community — without compromising their security and confidentiality. The datasets include information…

UW names Population Health building after Hans Rosling

Posted on October 10, 2019October 10, 2019

Hans Rosling is known internationally for his captivating analysis of global health data, for discovering a paralyzing disease in Africa and explaining its socio-economic causes, and for his intense curiosity and life-long passion for educating students, world leaders and the public. Now, Hans Rosling — a Swedish doctor, statistician, author and professor — will be a name associated with the University of Washington’s transformative work in population health. Today, the UW Board of Regents approved naming the $230 million building…

Initiative-funded project seeks to apply AI to behavioral health

Posted on October 8, 2019

Caregivers for children with chronic health conditions may experience symptoms of depression and sleep problems due to stress. To address this challenge, a tri-campus team of University of Washington researchers has developed CocoBot, a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect how caregivers are feeling and suggest self-help options. A grant from the Population Health Initiative allowed the team to begin work on CocoBot in spring 2019. The first version should be ready in the spring of 2020 as…

Findings of Applied Research Fellows to help inform King County program changes

Posted on October 3, 2019

The Population Health Initiative’s 2019 Applied Research Fellows spent 10 weeks this summer analyzing the impact of a program called First Steps, which provides wraparound maternity and infant services for low-income pregnant women in King County. Their findings, which were presented to staff and leadership of the Community Health Services Division (CHSD) of Public Health – Seattle & King County, will help inform CHSD’s plans for redesigning and refining its delivery of prevention-based services. CHSD is the largest provider of…

Pop-up galleries will visualize the bond between homeless humans and their pets

Posted on October 1, 2019October 1, 2019

A series of pop-up galleries featuring autobiographical photographs made by people experiencing homelessness with their pets will launch on Friday, October 4, 2019 in the University of Washington’s Red Square. The galleries, which will appear in public spaces around Seattle in October, will help illustrate the connections homeless people share with their companion animals. The events are being organized by the Center for One Health Research. The center also launched the One Health Clinic, providing one-stop health care and veterinary…

Air pollution can accelerate lung disease as much as a pack a day of cigarettes

Posted on September 24, 2019

A new study co-led by the University of Washington found that long-term exposure to major air pollutants, and especially ozone air pollution that is increasing with climate change, accelerates the progression of emphysema of the lung. Emphysema is a condition in which destruction of lung tissue leads to wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath, and increases the risk of death. “We were surprised to see how strong air pollution’s impact was on the progression of emphysema on lung scans, in…