Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy 2023-24 Annual Report
ABOUTTHEINSTITUTE WHOWEAREANDWHATWEDO
The Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy (IPHPRP) was established in 2023 with the merger of the former Institute for Public Health Research and Policy with the Institute for Public Health Practice, the Midwestern Public Health Training Center, the Center for Public Health Statistics and the Policy Research Project formerly with the Public Policy Center. The IPHPRP is an Iowa Board of Regents approved Center within the College of Public Health. IPHPRP includes three cores: (1) Public Health Practice and Workforce Development, (2) Statistics and Analytics, and (3) Research and Evaluation.
The Institute aims to support Iowa’s public health and healthcare sectors and foster grassroots public health research. It also seeks to connect academic and service activities with public health practitioners at all levels and create interdisciplinary communities to inform and shape public health policy.
At IPHPRP, our mission is to enhance the health of Iowan’s and uphold high public health standards through:
Innovative Evaluation and Research: Applying cutting-edge public health research to address major health challenges.
Collaborative Engagement: Connecting academic and service activities with public health practitioners at all levels.
Community Building: Creating interdisciplinary communities to inform and shape public health policy.
Data Leadership: Leading in public health data collection, analysis, and dissemination to address broad analytic needs within public health practice, research and policy arenas
Workforce Development: Leading workforce development in Iowa and the Midwest
28 FACULTY AND STAFF
LEADERSHIP
11 STUDENTS EMPLOYED
8 FACULTY AFFILIATES
TABLETOPEXERCISES
Tabletop exercises (TTXs) are a low-risk, effective approach to assessing emergency preparedness and response and helping staff members across organizations and communities understand their roles in such events. A TTX allows participants to critically think about and discuss potential scenarios that may impact normal operations.
The University of Iowa College of Public Health, Carver College of Medicine, and the State Hygienic Laboratory, in collaboration with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) developed two TTXs for Iowa hospitals and long-term care facilities (LTCFs).
The discussion-based exercises allowed participants to evaluate current and potential response plans in the event an emerging multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) is identified in their facility. The organisms of focus were Candida auris (C. auris) & Carbapenem-resistant acineobacterbaumanii (CRAB).
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, this scholarship program provides financial assistance to employees of long-term care facilities and hospitals, helping them cover the costs of certification preparation materials and exams. About:
The program is available for:
Long-term care facility employees seeking to receive Long-Term Care Certification in Infection Prevention (LTC-CIP)
Hospital employees seeking to receive Certification in Infection Control (CIC)
INDIVIDUALS HAVE APPLIED TO RECEIVE FUNDS
INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN REIMBURSED
COMMUNICATINGDATA
This training series is designed to help public health professionals and friends of public health build their skills, knowledge, and confidence when interpreting and communicating data.
Tackling Data
Advances the participant’s knowledge of quantitative data, provides skill building to assist in visualizing and communicating data, and provides supplemental resources.
Advances the participant’s ability to identify and communicate the main message from their data and develop the best visualizations to create a story with impact
Visualize This
Disaggregate It
Advances the participant’s understanding of, and ability to apply, health improvement frameworks to public health practice, especially interpretation, use, and communication of data for actionable change in the community.
This annual event includes a virtual all-day conference, featuring experts from across the country presenting their cutting edge research in childhood nutrition, physical activity, and prevention of long-term adverse health effects caused by obesity.
Target Audience: physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, health promoters, public health professionals, pharmacists, diabetes educators, registered dietitians, social workers, school personnel, and more!
In May 2024, the de Beaumont Foundation, in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the PHTCN, began recruiting local health departments and their staff to deploy the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). This project supports the governmental public health workforce by measuring strengths and gaps to inform future investments in funding, training, recruitment, and retention. Findings from the 2024 survey will be released in summer 2025
Within Region 7 (MPHTC):
203 out of 334 local health departments responded to our request, for a response rate of 60.8%.
Out of those 203 responses, 152 indicated their agreement to participate (74.9%). Of those who responded, 135 (66 5%) are currently participating; out of all 334 local health departments, this is a 40.4% participation rate.
SIZZLINGSUMMERSERIES
The University of Nebraska Medical Center Office of Public Health Practice, in partnership with the Midwestern Public Health Training Center (MPHTC), sponsored the 2024 Sizzling Summer Series! This year's Sizzling Summer Series was a continuation of last year's theme: data visualization.
The 2024 Sizzling Summer Series included the following sessions:
Visualizing Data: Crafting Compelling Stories to Share Data
The Art of Persuasion: Using Data to Enhance Credibility, Logic, and Emotional Appeal
Advancing Health Equity through Data Visualization
POLICYFELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The College of Public Health’s Policy Fellow Program, offered through the IPHPRP, creates opportunities for primary faculty and research staff appointed in the College of Public Health, to enhance skills for translating public health research into practice and policy Public Health faculty and research staff who desire additional opportunities to inform practice/policy change and who want to enhance their research portfolio through policy, are encouraged to apply for this year-long program
23-24PolicyFellow NicholeNidey
Dr. Nichole Nidey’s long-term research goal is to improve outcomes for pregnant and postpartum persons with substance use disorders. Her policy fellowship seeks to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of pregnant Iowans with methamphetamine use, and those that care for them, to inform the development of a patient-centered policy brief and key recommendations aimed at improving their access to healthcare and outcomes.
Dr. Nidey’s policy fellow includes convening a multidisciplinary stakeholder group virtually and in person during the project year. Stakeholders include individuals with lived experience of methamphetamine use during pregnancy, healthcare providers who care for pregnant Iowans with methamphetamine use, state and local agencies, community organizations, policy makers, and researchers. Additionally, her team is conducting an environmental scan to gain in-depth knowledge of the experience of methamphetamine use during pregnancy and caring for this population in the state of Iowa A policy brief has been co-written with stakeholders to disseminate the findings from the environmental scan along with key recommendations, with the goal of motivating additional work in the state to support this population.
For more information on her work please visit: https://iphprp.org/opportunities/faculty/policyfellows/policy-fellow-nichole-nidey/
COLLABORATORY
A collaboratory is a creative group process designed to solve complex problems which brings the opportunity for new organizational networks to form.
A collaboratory methodology expands the scope, scale, and impact of public health research. A successful collaboratory leads to a sustainable research initiative such as a large research, service, or center grant proposal that bolsters and builds upon areas of research closely linked to the CPH’s three areas of excellence: rural health, comparative effectiveness research, and community engagement
Emily Roberts, assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, has been selected by the IPHPRP to establish a new collaboratory dedicated to advancing causal inference research.
Roberts’s multidisciplinary team will focus on causal inference, which relates to the process of determining cause-and-effect relationships, usually from observational or complex data. Causal inference is important for evidence-based decision-making in fields such as medicine, public health, and policy However, challenges remain in understanding cause-effect relationships behind these decisions, and in improving methods used to do so.
The Causal Inference Collaborative Group at the University of Iowa aims to promote methodological advancements, serve as a central resource for researchers, provide training, and assist in the preparation of grants that evaluate causal effects, especially those addressing public health challenges
“Our goal is to build upon existing strengths of the college through a community of collaboration, and advance important causal inference research,” says Roberts. “By joining researchers with diverse expertise, we hope to foster causal reasoning across fields and ultimately improve the quality of methodology and insights that can be gathered from data We are very excited to bring together this interdisciplinary group and hope any interested individuals will join us in our events (workshops, meetings, and working groups) throughout the year.”
In addition to Roberts, the collaboratory team leaders include: Ryan Cho, Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, Jonathan Platt, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, Kai Wang, Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, and Nathan Wikle, Department of Statistics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The team also includes University of Iowa researchers and experts from the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center, Health Effectiveness Research Center, Department of Health Management and Policy, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, and Department of Community and Behavioral Health.
