Partner in Public & Preventive Health in Georgia

Georgia Health Sciences University:

Partner in Public & Preventive Health in Georgia Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Medicine President, Georgia Health Sciences University CEO, MCG Health System, Inc.

Delivering Value in Public & Preventive Health Conference and Public Forum May 16, 2012

Critical Need for Public & Preventive Health Strategies in GA • GA has a higher than U.S. average for:

– Age‐adjusted mortality & prevalence of hospitalization* for stroke – Age adjusted mortality for major cardiovascular diseases, and prevalence of hospitalization* for congestive heart failure – Prevalence of obesity and prevalence of obesity in youth – Prevalence of T2DM – Prevalence of other indicators of poor health (e.g. % of those ≥65 yrs. with all teeth lost)

*In persons receiving Medicare aged ≥65 yrs.

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Critical Need for Public & Preventive Health Strategies in GA • Among all states, Georgia is negatively ranked: – – – – – – – – –

31st highest for the % of adults who smoke 37th lowest for the % of adults who exercise regularly 38th highest for the % of overweight high school students 39th highest for the % of adults who are obese 41st highest for the % of adults with T2DM 40th highest for infant mortality rate 41st highest for teen birth rate 43rd & 45th highest for pre-term births & LBW babies rate 47th highest for the prevalence of TB, hepatitis and AIDS

2008 Health Rankings – Georgia and Georgia’s Children, Healthcare Georgia Foundation, Pub. #32, August 2009

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Critical Need for Public & Preventive Health Strategies in GA • 40,000 Georgians are diagnosed annually with cancer • 15,000 deaths due to cancer annually – Rate of 187 cancer-related deaths per 100,000 citizens exceeds the national average – 80% of Georgia’s counties exceed the national cancer death rate – Some of our rural counties exceed 250 cancer-related deaths per 100,000 citizens 4

Critical Need for Public & Preventive Health Strategies in GA • 30 counties in Georgia have lower life expectancy than the 3rd world countries of…

– Dominican Republic – Gaza Strip – Thailand – El Salvador 5

Public Health: Richmond County • Overall Rank in GA: 118 [1 Best - 159 Worst]

– Strengths: Ranks in top 25% of GA counties for 2 of 15 measures • Education, Physicians

– Challenges: Ranks in bottom 25% of GA counties for 6 of 15 measures • Poverty, Crime, Obesity, STDS, Life Expectancy, Diabetes

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The Partner Up! for Public Health Campaign (http://www.togetherwecandobetter.com/articles/article/7524013/150349.htm)

AHCs & Public Health • AHCs in general, and GHSU in particular, serve as important partners for: – The development of innovative multidisciplinary public & preventive health research – The application and testing of novel public health strategies and technologies – The formulation of public health policy & law – The training of specialized and dual-degree public health workers 7

GHSU Areas of Public Health Focus • Underserved populations & health disparities • Correctional health • Child health • Oral health • Mental and behavioral health • Health informatics • Healthcare delivery & management • Healthcare workforce & planning 8

Georgia Health Sciences Strategic Plan Transformation 2020 • “Areas of [research] focus will include reparative and regenerative medicine, public and preventive health, pediatrics and early-life determinants, and personalized and genomic medicine.”

• “Develop an Institute of Public Health and Prevention to support clinical, translational, and health services public health and preventive research.”

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http://www.georgiahealth.edu/transformation2020/index.html

Institute of Public and Preventive Health at GHSU 10

Institute of Public and Preventive Health at GHSU • Priorities: – To improve health, reduce health disparities, and prevent injury and illness in Georgia through research, service, leadership, and training – To generate evidence and innovation to lead Georgia and the world to better public and preventive health

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Institute of Public and Preventive Health at GHSU Staff support

Prevention of Human Disease (GPC)

• Leadership: – – – – – – –

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Director

Biostatistics

Advisory Board

Health Management and Informatics

Community studies and epidemiology

• Scholars:

Andrew Balas (Director) Greg Harshfield (GPC, prevention research) Varghese George (Biostatistics) Lori Prince (Health management and informatics) Pavani Rangachari (Health services research) Richard Sattin (Community studies & epidemiology) Martha Tingen (Community relations)

– Initially, the Institute will house 36 scholars – Projected to recruit 30 new research faculty over next 3-5 yrs – Institute scholars are faculty affiliated with one or more of the university’s colleges

Prevention of Human Disease • Key areas: Concepts and methods of social and behavioral sciences relevant

to the identification and solution of public health problems, translational health sciences

• Institute scholars (14): Gregory Harshfield, Deborah Young-Hyman, Ryan

Harris, Haidong Zhu, Catherine Davis, Norman Pollock, Xiaoling Wang, Gaston Kapuku, Shaoyong Su, Yanbin Dong, Vernon Barnes, Martha Tingen, Nancy Webb, DeHuang Guo

• Illustrative project:

Evaluation, characterization, and classification of disordered eating behavior in the context of diabetes (behavioral health and pediatrics)

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Biostatistics

• Key areas: Collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and interpretation of

health data; design and analysis of health-related surveys and experiments; and concepts and practice of statistical data analysis

• Institute scholars (12): Varghese George, Stephen Looney, Grzegorz

Rempala, James Dias, Jennifer Waller, Hongyan (Nathan) Xu, Jeonghyeon (Justin) Choi, Maribeth Johnson, Jaejik Kim, Kristina Kintziger, Ling Lan, Duchwan Ryu

• Illustrative project:

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Development of a parametric method that adjusts for data undersampling in simultaneous comparisons of multiple receptor groups (biostatistics)

Health Management and Informatics • Key areas: Planning, organization, administration, management,

information support, evaluation and policy analysis of health and public health programs

• Institute scholars (9): Andrew Balas, Amanda Barefield, Anita Bhat, Carol Campbell, Jim Condon, Vibha Kumar, Lori Prince, Pavani Rangachari, Yoon Ho Seol

• Illustrative project:

Enabling successful reduction in catheterrelated infection rates and improved quality of care (health services research, public administration and internal medicine)

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Community Studies and Epidemiology • Key areas: Distributions and determinants of disease, disabilities and death

in human populations; the characteristics and dynamics of human populations; and the natural history of disease and the biologic basis of health

• Institute scholars (4): Richard Sattin, Kristina Kintziger*, Shaoyong Su*, Hongyan (Nathan) Xu

• Illustrative project:

Achieving high rate of acceptance in HIV screening among adolescents (epidemiology, emergency medicine and biostatistics)

* listed in other IPPH units as well

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Institute of Public and Preventive Health at GHSU NIH Funding (FY11) per full-time faculty

No. full time faculty

NIH funding (FY11)

Emory Univ., Rollins School of Public Health

175

$29,942,383

$171,099

GHSU, Institute of Public and Preventive Health

36

$6,191,733

$171,992

UGA, College of Public Health

47

$3,471,090

$73,852

GA State Univ., Institute of Public Health

25

$2,148,943

$85,957

GA So. Univ., Jiann-Ping Hsu Coll. of Public Health

35

$0

$0.00

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From http://report.nih.gov/http://report.nih.gov/

Institute of Public and Preventive Health at GHSU: Going Strong and Getting Stronger In the comparable group of public & preventive health institutes or schools in GA*, the IPPH at GHSU is already: • Second in GA in overall research and in NIH funding – First among comparable institutes and schools at public universities in GA – NIH funding is greater than the combined NIH funding of all other comparable institutes and centers at public universities in GA

• Third based on the number of full-time research faculty • First in NIH dollars per full-time research faculty *Emory University Rollins School, GHSU Institute of Public and Preventive Health, Georgia State University Institute of Public Health, UGA College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University JiannPing Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Health Policy Center at GSU

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Celebrating the creation of the Institute of Public & Preventive Health at GHSU!!

Thank you