The Association of Academic Health Centers, through its American Network of Health Promoting Universities, has announced awards of $20,000 to four of its member institutions, including UNMC, for planning grants to convene community stakeholders to improve the health of local communities. The grant recipients, selected by an external review committee, also include Duke University Health System, New York Medical College and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
The grants will enable the CEOs of academic health centers to take an immediate and tangible leadership role in bringing together key local leaders to take stock of the health of the community and to identify collaborative steps that can be taken to make improvements.
“The role of the academic health center CEO publicly demonstrates the institution’s commitment to improving the health of the greater community,” said Clyde H. Evans, Ph.D., director of the network. Dr. Evans lauded the active involvement of UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., as well as Ralph Snyderman, M.D., at Duke, the Rev. Msgr. Harry Barrett at NYMC, and M. Roy Wilson, M.D., at Texas Tech as a crucial factor in awarding the grants. Dr. Wilson, who began his duties as president of TTUHSC June 9, previously served as vice president for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine at Creighton University.
The grant received by UNMC will be utilized in an effort to reduce health disparities in Omaha. Ward Chambers, M.D., associate professor of cardiology and executive director of NHS/UNMC Community and Multicultural Affairs, will oversee UNMC’s grant, which was written by Valda Boyd-Ford, director of Community and Multicultural Affairs.
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Valda Boyd-Ford |
Boyd-Ford said the group in Omaha would consist of approximately 150 people, who will meet sometime in October. Their report is due back to the Association of Academic Health Centers in February 2004. She also said that UNMC officials would work to attract top-level management from local companies, “people who are decision makers and change agents.”
They also are hoping to invite a number of people who have not been involved in similar discussions in the past and who “might be willing to add a new perspective” to the talks.
“We’re looking to improve communication and collaboration between agencies and community members, and we want to develop a core working group to write an evaluation of what went on and to move on with the next steps, as are determined in that meeting,” Boyd-Ford said. “The beauty of it is that we’ll have input from a wide variety of individuals, because we want about a third of the group to be community members.”
Boyd-Ford said that the group would generate a final report, which will be sent back to AHC and will result in the generation of an action plan with which the group can move forward.
According to Boyd-Ford’s grant proposal, assessments of local healthcare status show that health status indicators are going in the wrong direction for a number of conditions. The percentage of obese adults in the area is 23.6 percent, as compared with 19.1 percent nationally. The age-adjusted cancer death rate in Omaha is 9.8 percent higher than the national average, with lung cancer being 6.7 percent higher than nationally. In addition, Nebraska ranks at the bottom nationally in infant mortality, while rates of stroke and asthma are also higher here than they are nationally.
“Our goal is not just to help decrease or eliminate disparities, but hopefully to generate the type of collaboration and goodwill that will allow each agency to understand its strengths,” Boyd-Ford said. “But our main goal, as always, is to improve the health of the community.”
The other grants will be used to help plan and implement a countywide obesity reduction initiative in Durham, N.C., for an immigrant health initiative in New York State’s Hudson Valley, and for a health disparity project targeting obesity in Lubbock, Texas. Each will bring together a unique consortium of stakeholders needed to tackle such complex community health issues and to ensure the success and sustainability of the projects.
The American Network of Health Promoting Universities, a grant-funded project of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a coalition of universities and academic institutions dedicated to increasing awareness and incorporating health-promotion and disease-prevention ideals and practices throughout the university and the communities it serves. The network works to enhance the role of academic leaders in health promotion.
The Association of Academic Health Centers is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of the people by advancing the leadership of academic health centers in health professions education, biomedical and health services research, and health care delivery.