The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative has received a transformative gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, advancing our efforts to improve human health and well-being. This $210 million gift will catalyze our work to enhance human health, environmental resiliency and social and economic equity here in Washington and around the world. Learn More >
The majority of the reading achievement gap that appears between poverty-impacted students and their peers is attributable to the lack of access to summer reading opportunities. To boost these literacy outcomes, tutors from the College of Education have partnered with Seattle’s Whitman Middle School to offer one-on-one support to students, which includes 12 90-minute sessions over the course of a month. The program recently finished its fifth year, and is highly regarded by Whitman’s principal. Learn More >
The focus of the latest provost’s report, which was released today, is population health and the UW’s groundbreaking new Population Health Initiative. The report introduces readers to work the University of Washington currently has underway to better address population health, and features the following: Social and Economic Equity: How factors of equity impact health and well-being of diverse populations Environmental Resiliency: Understanding the impact of the environment on health and well-being Human Health: How today’s research and inventions set the…
The latest Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study, which allows a thorough analysis of the state of the world’s health, was released on October 7. The study is conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The study, which is published by The Lancet, noted continued increases in overall life expectancy, due in part to declines in critical infectious diseases. However, the burden of non-communicable disease and injury is rising, often in areas…
People suffering from lung diseases in developing worlds often do not have a good way to track lung functioning without visiting the doctor. Through the work of UW researchers, many may soon be able to measure their lung function simply by blowing into any type of phone after SpiroCall, a new health sensing tool, was found to meet the medical community’s standard for accuracy. With this proof of concept in hand, the research team can now plan for additional data…
What does it mean to be homeless in the U-District? Drama students created Skies Over Seattle, original theater pieces inspired by the intersection of volunteerism and artistic creation in pursuit of understanding that question. Graduate students in acting, design and directing, as well as several undergraduates, volunteered for three community organizations that serve the homeless around the UW’s Seattle campus. Over the course of a year, their lessons learned and questions asked inspired the students to write, design, and perform…
Current oral drug therapies for HIV can greatly reduce the presence of the virus in the blood stream. However, limitations prevent these therapies from reducing the presence of HIV in the tissues of a body, and to work in the blood stream, patients must strictly adhere to daily dosing regimens for the rest of their lives. To address these shortcomings, pharmacy professor Rodney JY Ho and medicine professor Ann Collier have partnered to develop a new, seven-day long-lasting HIV therapy…
Those who live in cities are increasingly “numb” to the natural world and its important connections for our health. UW researcher Peter Kahn says that city dwellers are unaware of how we’re undermining our connection to nature, putting our own health and the survival of wildlife and wild areas at higher risk of loss from inaction on environmental problems. Kahn coauthored a new book that explores how “environmental generational amnesia” is due in part to a shift in each generation…