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Initiative awards 2018 graduate student conference travel funds

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The Population Health Initiative today announced the winners of 16 Graduate Student Conference Travel Awards. These awards are intended to further the academic, research or professional goals of graduate students as they strive to become the next generation of leaders in population health. These awards were open to graduate students on all three UW campuses who were currently enrolled in a graduate degree program and had been accepted to present a population health-related paper, poster or exhibit, or to serve…

UW welcomes new director of global mental health

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Dr. Pamela Y. Collins has joined the University of Washington as Director of Global Mental Health, a joint program that is co-led by the Departments of Global Health and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her focus will be building on the existing work of faculty and as well as attracting new funded research. Collins started in her position in early January after spending nearly eight years at the National Institute of Mental Health, serving as director of the Office for Research on Disparities…

Use of fringe loans linked to poor health

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Researchers at the University of Washington School of Public Health and the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance recently published a first-of-its-kind study showing that fringe loan services may cost poor and working class Americans not only their finances, but also their health. Their research notes that people who use fringe loan services and those who do not have access to a bank account were 38 percent and 17 percent more likely, respectively, to self-report having poor or fair…

Initiative releases its Report to the Community

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The University of Washington launched the Population Health Initiative two years ago with the goal of taking the next big step to improve the health and well-being of people here and around the globe. Since then, significant early progress has been made toward realizing the initiative’s vision of creating a world where all people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives. The 2016-18 Population Health Initiative Report to the Community shares highlights of that progress in areas such as the…

Groundbreaking occurs for new UW population health building

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The University of Washington broke ground on April 25 for the new population health building on its Seattle campus, a 290,000-square-foot facility that will be the home for the Population Health Initiative. The new building will create a space for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation to better understand and improve all the factors that influence the health and well-being of populations here and across the globe. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Department of Global Health and portions of the…

Progress reported by inaugural round of pilot research grant awards

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The Population Health Initiative pilot research grant encourages new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators for projects that address critical components of grand challenges the University of Washington seeks to address in population health. The initiative funded an inaugural round of five pilot research grants to faculty-led teams from 10 different UW schools and colleges in October 2017. Since that time, the five teams have made significant initial progress towards achieving their goals for their yearlong projects. Highlights of their work includes:

Social Work’s Communities That Care model gaining national traction

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The University of Washington School of Social Work’s Communities That Care program, a youth development model, continues to be adopted across the nation. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment committed significant funds to this system when it adopted CTC in 2016, with CTC now implemented in 48 communities in the state. The CTC program promotes healthy social development, improves youth outcomes and reduces problem behaviors by using prevention science as its base. Learn More >

New UW training program to improve access to dental care for children

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The University of Washington is launching an interprofessional training program to improve access to dental care for children ranging in age from one to five. This new program, which is led by the UW School of Dentistry, is funded by a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Early Childhood Oral Health Training, or EchoTrain, will provide pediatric dental training directly to UW dental students, Shoreline Community College dental hygiene students, and students and trainees…

UW launches world’s first health metrics sciences department

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The University of Washington will establish the world’s first academic department devoted to the science of health metrics on July 1, 2018. The new Department of Health Metrics Sciences, which will be part of the UW School of Medicine, will focus on using high-quality information to measure population health, its determinants and the performance of health systems. The department will take an interdisciplinary approach to measuring and understanding the elements that affect health here in the United States and worldwide, which will…

Developing holistic approaches to management of fisheries

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New research from the University of Washington College of the Environment indicates that an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management offers a simple set of rules that can help avoid scenarios that might cause a worst-case outcome for fish and their surrounding environments. For example, factors such as predators, habitat, food sources or temperature can influence a species’ abundance and therefore impact the number of fish that can be caught sustainably. These findings provide a framework for managers to identify the…