Public health researchers earn Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant

January 16, 2013 • Uncategorized

Two UNT Health Science Center College of Public Health domestic tuberculosis researchers have received one of four new $100,000 grants to enable emerging researchers to explore the effect of public health services on population health.

Principal Investigator Thad Miller, DrPH, assistant professor, Department of Health Management and Policy and the Department of Medicine, and his mentor, José Pagán, PhD, professor and chair, Health Management and Policy, will work with the local public health community to study the cost of public health investment in domestic tuberculosis control, as well as health and other individual losses. Their work will include looking at new tools for public protection and progress toward TB elimination by local, state and regional TB control authorities and public health systems.

The two-year Mentored Research Scientist Development Award from the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR), housed at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will support the examination of issues including health information exchange; disparities in access to public water and sanitation; costs of controlling tuberculosis; and local public health departments’ use of social media tools.

The awards are designed to produce timely evidence to guide decisions by public health practitioners and policy-makers, while enabling early career investigators to develop the backgrounds and skills needed to establish independent careers in PHSSR and compete for other funding opportunities.