The Center's Beat: Monthly Update

Faculty and Staff News and Recent Events

The Center for Health Equity Explores New Global Partnerships. The ADHINCRA (ADdressing HypertensIoN Care in AfRicA) Study is funded by an Implementation Grant from the Johns Hopkins Alliance for a Healthier World. It is led by Dr. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and a core faculty member of the Center, along with Dr. Fred Stephen Sarfo, Senior Lecturer and Neurologist from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. This pilot study is a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial involving 240 participants with uncontrolled hypertension, from four hospitals in Kumasi, Ghana. This study seeks to reduce the burden of hypertension through a multilevel, nurse-led, mobile-health enhanced intervention addressing patient-level, provider-level, and system-level barriers to hypertension control.

Dr. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah (Core faculty), Dr. Lisa Cooper (Center Director), and Nancy Molello(Program Director) visited Ghana for a week and met with a variety of stakeholders including Deans of the Schools of Public Health and Medical Sciences, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, healthcare providers and representatives from Medtronic Labs to obtain input on study objectives, refine the study protocol, and identify opportunities and strategies to scale up the intervention.

Please come out to join Drs. Lisa Cooper and Yvonne Commodore-Mensah as they discuss the ADHINCRA Study in more detail during Welch Center Grand Rounds on Wednesday, February 06, 2019 from 12:15 PM to 1:15 PM at 2024 E. Monument Street, Powe Suite 1-500Q.

(L to R) Dr. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah and Dr. Fred Stephen Sarfo

Johns Hopkins: Janice Bowie Named Director of Bloomberg School’s Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program. Janice Bowie, PhD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been named the director of Bloomberg School’s Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program. Her expertise in health disparities and community-based research methods, strong leadership and willingness to instruct will help to guide students as they pursue their academic goals. Congratulations on this major accomplishment, Janice! For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2G6cd30

Raquel Greer receives funding from the Urban Health Institute (UHI) Small Grant Program, the France-Merrick Foundation, and the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation. Raquel Greer, MD, MHS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Core Faculty member in the Center for Health Equity. She also serves as the Education Director for the Brancati Center for the Advancement of Community Care. The UHI funded project is a collaborative partnership between the Brancati Center and Zion Baptist Church to implement Decision-making Education for Choice In Diabetes (DECIDE), an evidence-based diabetes self-management training program, in a church-based program in the Oliver neighborhood of East Baltimore. The France-Merrick and Stulman Foundation-funded project is a collaborative effort between the Brancati Center and Moveable Feast to conduct a randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the impact of medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy on the health-related outcome and health care costs among low-income adults with diabetes. Congratulations, Raquel, keep up the great work!

Deidra Crews visits University Hospital Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. From January 24-25, 2019, Deidra Crews, MD, ScM, Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was a visiting professor in Limerick, Ireland at University Hospital Limerick. During her visit, she met with nephrology trainees and School of Medicine faculty and shared her expertise during a Medical Grand Rounds lecture on “Food as Medicine for Chronic Kidney Disease” to provide dietary solutions to prevent chronic kidney disease progression among disadvantaged populations. Keep up the great work, Deidra!

Dr. Crews and nephrology fellows of University Hospital Limerick

Community Partner News and Recent Events
Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen Grand Re-Opening. Sponsored by the American Heart Association, the Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen grand re-opening will be held on March 11, 2019, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at 1100 East Fayette Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202. The event offers hands-on, affordable cooking classes for individuals and groups that will help combat chronic diseases. Students will prepare a heart-healthy main course with appropriate side dishes to take home to their family, along with the recipe they used. Each class will include nutritional information, basic food safety, and sanitation overviews, recipes and the preparation of a meal. For more information and registration, visit http://bit.ly/2UyzWgd.

Why Women Cry XIV. Please save the date for the Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc. (STAR) Annual Why Women Cry XIII Event on Monday, April 22, 2019, from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, 202 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The theme for this year’s workshop is “We’re Changing: It’s Our Time!” to reflect the goal of participants learning how to empower themselves through personal health and wellbeing. The conference will equip participants with information to identify specialized resources and to transfer the knowledge gained at the conference to their social circles. The objective of the conference is to engage at least 2,500 participants with powerful speakers, a wellness village, HIV/STI testing center, counseling resources, linkages to support, fitness activities, and educational exhibits. For any additional questions, please contact Asia Johnson via phone at 410-276-8969 or email ajohnson@sisterstogetherandreaching.org.

Trainee News and Recent Events

University of Wisconsin-Madison Postdoctoral Fellowship in Health Disparities Research. This program supports the training of scholars from diverse fields to become interdisciplinary researchers with a focus on health among minority populations, particularly in maternal/ child, adolescent, and family health. Appointments will be for 2-3 years beginning in the summer or fall of 2019. Fellows receive an annual stipend, health insurance and funds for travel and tuition. NIH requires that trainees in this program be U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. Candidates from diverse backgrounds and disciplines across the social, behavioral, biological, and health sciences are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is February 1, 2019. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2fiKBZH.

American Voices Project Research Fellowships. This fellowship begins with intensive training in public policy, qualitative interviewing, and ethnographic and survey methods. Fellows will then spend a year conducting in-person interviews with families across America to learn about their lives, relationships, jobs, health, and well-being. When the interviewing ends, fellows will reconvene for a second training institute in data analysis. The fellowship is paid and is designed for graduating seniors, graduate students, and anyone committed to tackling the country’s most pressing problems. The position begins in June 2019 and concludes in summer 2020. The deadline for the next round of applications is February 7, 2019. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2ER3kdz.

Summer Training for Underrepresented Junior Faculty. The PRIDE Summer Institute Program in Cardiovascular Disease Comorbidities, Genetics, and Epidemiology to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research is now accepting applications. This all-expense paid Summer Institute program is eligible to junior-level faculty or scientists with a background that is under-represented in the biomedical or health sciences, and are United States Citizens or Permanent Residents. Research interests should be compatible with those of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders. Application deadline is March 15, 2019. To apply and learn more about this opportunity, visit http://bit.ly/2sUwxfF.

Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership at Cornell University. Cornell University is offering a dual-degree program that prepares healthcare professionals to drive change and innovation within their organizations and across the industry at large. The Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program offers two Ivy League degrees in two years with a weekend format. Students earn both an MBA from the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management and an MS from the Healthcare Policy and Research department at Weill Cornell Medicine. The curriculum focuses on skills that are essential to lead complex healthcare organizations and engage productively with all stakeholders, including physicians, payers, technologists, and more, through a common language. For more information, please email Cornell University’s Program Director, Shivani Dhir, at shd2035@med.cornell.edu.

ORISE Health Care Quality Fellowship. A fellowship opportunity is available in the Division of Health Care Quality (DHCQ) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Under the guidance of the Director of the Division, the ORISE fellow will be expected to coordinate Departmental efforts to advance the National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-associated Infections (HAI Action Plan) and the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention (ADE Action Plan), thereby enhancing patient safety as well as decreasing ADEs for anticoagulants, diabetes agents, and opioids and HAIs. Furthermore, the ORISE fellow will be expected to support the National Clinical Care Commission (NCCC) Federal Advisory Committee which is tasked with evaluating and providing recommendations on the coordination and leveraging of federal programs related to complex metabolic or autoimmune diseases that result from insulin-related issues and represent a significant disease burden in the United States including diabetes. The application deadline is April 9, 2019. For more information about this fellowship, visit https://bit.ly/2F7lyYq.

The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Special JHSPH Maternal Health Equity Event to Honor Dr. Shalon Irving. We are pleased to announce that our next Jam Session will be replaced by a special symposium to honor the life of Dr. Shalon Irving and to advance the agenda to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health. Our Center, along with the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health’s Office of External Affairs, the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Women’s Health, Sex and Gender Research, will co-sponsor a symposium titled “The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Special JHSPH Maternal Health Equity Event to Honor Dr. Shalon Irving.” This event will be from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (615 N Wolfe St), Sommer Hall, E2014. If you would like to attend this event, we encourage you to register quickly as the seats are filling up fast. For more information and to register for this event, visit https://bit.ly/2DGk05Z.

Upcoming Events

2019 National Health Policy Conference. Join the nation’s leading health care decision makers and policy leaders for an extensive overview of the nation’s health policy agenda. As the country and its leaders consider the future shape and scope of health care, the AcademyHealth National Health Policy Conference is a one-of-a-kind event designed to identify challenges, discuss solutions, and define the research needed to inform and evaluate policies to improve health and the performance of the health care system. This event will be held from February 4-5, 2019, at the Marriott Marquis, Washington, DC. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2ENKu6v.

6th Annual Renée Royak-Schaler Lecture in Health Disparities. University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health is hosting the 6th Annual Renée Royak-Schaler Lecture in Health Disparities. Ichiro Kawachi, MBChB, PhD, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Harvard University will share his expertise on “Social Capital and Disaster Resilience.” This event will be held Thursday, April 11, 2019, from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM at Taylor Lecture Hall, Bressler Building, 655 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2HEOFEI.

Ichiro Kawachi, MBChB, PhD, Professor in the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

NIH Pathways to Prevention (P2P) Workshop Achieving Health Equity in Preventive Services. This P2P workshop will be held from June 19-20, 2019 in Bethesda, MD. The purpose of this event is to assess the available scientific evidence on achieving health equity in the use of clinical preventive services in a health care setting, focusing on three leading causes of death in the United States: cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2MCRIMp.

Funding Opportunities

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Climate Solutions Call for Proposals. Through this funding opportunity, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) seeks to develop and amplify the evidence around a set of approaches that improve community health and well-being while also addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation. Eligible, local approaches can focus on one or more determinants of health such as air quality, energy sources, transportation or mobility design, food and water systems, housing, and health systems. Brief proposals are due by February 8, 2019. For more information, visit https://rwjf.ws/2BwEQlN.

Mechanisms of Disparities in Etiology and Outcomes of Lung Cancer in the U.S.: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors (R21). This initiative will support exploratory and developmental multidisciplinary research to understand the underlying causal factors and mechanisms that result in lung cancer disparities in U.S. health disparity populations. Examples of eligible projects might include those that assess the feasibility of a novel area of investigation or a new methodology that has the potential to enhance health-related research. Another example could include the unique and innovative use of an existing methodology to explore a new scientific area. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on a field of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research. The application deadline for this funding is March 4, 2019. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2DXnQJn.