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Latest news and updates

Latest news and updates

Spotlight: Graduate student Evalynn Fae Taganna Romano reflects on her time at UW

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While most people were isolating early during the COVID-19 pandemic, one University of Washington student was delivering deliver weekly breakfasts, cloth masks, thank you notes and grocery gift cards for more than 200 UW custodians. That student was Evalynn Fae Taganna Romano, a UW alum who received her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2010, before returning for a master’s in both public health and social work in 2021. Romano has a long track record of advocacy work, her most prominent…

Expanding emissions decreases timeline of inevitable increase in global temperatures

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In order to limit greenhouse gas emissions to continue the gradual decline of emissions rates, many countries joined the Paris Agreement, which limits warming to 2 degrees Celsius at most. Researchers from the University of Washington sought to determine the extent to which past emissions guarantee a certain degree of warming by expanding their focus to include specific emissions such as methane and aerosols in addition to carbon dioxide. The researchers created a “best-case scenario” model by studying what would…

UW study assesses disproportionate access to opioid addiction treatment

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As the opioid addition crisis becomes increasingly worse across the U.S. over the past several years, federal policy changes are being implemented to shift patient evaluations toward a virtual format. A focus on buprenorphine, an effective treatment for opioid disorder, was another major aspect of these policy changes, as it is easy to prescribe in a telemedicine setting. Researchers at the University of Washington are exploring whether these changes in policy are affecting the disproportionate access to buprenorphine experienced by…

Initiative awards nine autumn quarter 2022 Tier 1 pilot research grants to UW teams

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The Population Health Initiative has awarded nine Tier 1 pilot grants to teams representing researchers from seven different University of Washington schools and colleges, plus UW Bothell and several different community-based partners. The total value of these nine awards is approximately $300,000, of which $213,000 is initiative funding and the remainder drawing from school, college and departmental matching funds. “We were pleased to receive a range of innovative proposals seeking to address grand challenges in topics ranging from wildfire smoke…

Interdisciplinary approach to mitigating human health impacts of prescribed forest fires

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The health impacts of smoke from forest fires are rising with the recent increase in fires due to climate change. Managing forest health through smaller prescribed fires is necessary to mitigating the intensity of wildfires, but the smoke from these fires simultaneously creates negative human health effects. To address this issue, a team of experts led by the University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy assembled an interdisciplinary team of experts to strike a balance between protecting human health and…

Global Perspectives: Women in Leadership in Public Health panel on Nov. 2

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Gender gaps within public health organizations are persistent and have been exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic, systematically preventing individuals who identify as women from advancing to positions of power and influence and impacting health system delivery to women and society overall. Please plan to join us online or in person at 8 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, for a conversation on the imperative of women in leadership in public health. Hear perspectives from four panelists working around the…

Applied Research Fellowship project assesses King County housing need and supply trends

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The 2022 University of Washington Population Health Initiative (PHI) Applied Research Fellowship program (ARFP) recently concluded their research on trends in housing need and supply in King County to better understand how needs are changing and may change in the future. They also provided stakeholders with an updated interactive data tool, developed by past PHI ARFP teams, which describes geographic and temporal changes in household stock and availability of land for residential development. The PHI ARFP team (pictured, during final…

Spotlight: Ali Ahmed seeks to reduce barriers to care through a career in health policy

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When Ali Ahmed moved from Florida to Seattle in 2018, he never could have imagined the accomplishments and experiences he would experience. It was not just the culture and food that had Ahmed excited but also the professional and educational opportunities that come with living in a city as large as Seattle. In fact, the summer before his freshman year saw Ahmed immersed in a research opportunity at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. That experience – and being able to…

Social Entrepreneurship Fellows develop strategic roadmaps for emerging innovations

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The Population Health Initiative’s summer 2022 Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program concluded in August with the fellows presenting their findings to students, faculty and staff from schools and colleges across campus. The fellows spent 10 weeks working on population health innovations developed by University of Washington researchers to determine how these innovations could be financially sustainable while also having a substantial societal impact. The Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program was developed by the Population Health Initiative – in partnership with the Buerk…

Making the switch to e-cigarettes leads to holistic health benefits for adult smokers

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A new study from the University of Washington sought to determine whether adult smokers might experience multiple health and well-being benefits by switching to e-cigarettes. Their results showed an overall positive effect on the health of smokers after making this switch in their adult life. The researchers drew from the Seattle Social Development Project, which was a larger longitudinal study that began in 1985. They surveyed 156 of the participants from that project who reported smoking at age 30 and…