Press Release

CDC Working to Improve Ability to Use Technology and Communication to Improve Health; First Grants to Establish Centers of Excellence are Awarded

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded nearly $5.2 million to fund two new Centers of Excellence in Health Marketing and Health Communication and two Centers of Excellence in Public Health Informatics. With these grants, CDC is hoping to foster scientific advances that improve the ability of health care professionals to communicate health recommendations to consumers and to more easily use electronic information systems.

“We know that our ability to effectively communicate, along with our skills in using computers and other information technologies, are very important in our efforts to improve people’s health and well being,” said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “With these initial investments in four new Centers of Excellence, we hope to identify new tools, approaches, and strategies for managing health records, bringing together disease information from different places, understanding the questions and concerns of patients, and educating people about ways to improve their health. The more we learn about when and how to use health communication and electronic information systems, the better able we’ll be to meet the needs of people in the community."

The grants are part of a larger CDC research program, the “Health Protection Research Initiative,” that is designed to discover strategies and tools that increase the ability of health departments, physicians, and other health care providers to promote health and prevent diseases, injuries, or disabilities. Projects funded under CDC’s research initiative are designed to speed the detection of infectious diseases and environmental hazards, improve health education and communication efforts, lead to better and wider use of information systems, and promote greater collaboration among organizations working to protect the health and well being of the public.

Centers of Excellence in Health Marketing and Health Communication
The focus of CDC’s two new Centers of Excellence in Health Marketing and Health Communication is on finding ways to effectively provide information and educational materials to help people make sound health decisions. Often, websites, brochures, posters, and videos are used to provide health information and advice. These two Centers of Excellence will be looking for ways to best use these and other tools, as well as doing research designed to determine how to measure the effectiveness of communication materials. The Centers will also begin placing special emphasis on projects designed to improve the health and well being of people who are at higher risk for disease and illness as well as people living in rural areas (i.e., areas that have less access to medical care). Projects at the new Center at the University of Connecticut are designed to promote abstinence, safer sex, and reduce drug and alcohol use among youth and young adults. Projects at the new Center at the University of Georgia will focus on improving the health of the poor and near-poor in the South and will examine how they understand and respond to health risks. One major research study focuses on understanding how people process personalized genetic risk information. In another study adolescents’ attitudes toward smoking are examined to improve the effectiveness of anti-smoking media messages.

Centers of Excellence in Public Health Informatics
The CDC’s two new Centers of Excellence in Public Health Informatics will improve the public’s health through discovery, innovation, and research related to health information and information technology (e.g., better use of electronic or computerized information systems). The new Center at Harvard Medical School will be developing a computer-based system designed to rapidly identify disease outbreaks using patient and other medical records. The new Center at the University of Washington will work on two major research projects that focus on improving public health surveillance and epidemic detection methods and the development of an interactive digital knowledge management system including concept mapping services that will provide rapid access to answers from a variety of key resources.

For more information visit www.cdc.gov/od/ophr

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This page last updated September 30, 2005
URL: http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050930.htm

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