The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute was established in 1995 as a University-wide endeavor to bring the moral dimensions of medical care, health policy, and the biological, behavioral, and social sciences to the forefront of scholarship and practice. The institute is designed to provide educational opportunities for students throughout the University and to provide an intellectual home for Johns Hopkins University faculty whose research advances and engages questions of bioethics. The School of Public Health's Program in Law, Ethics, and Health is a major component of the Bioethics Institute. The Bioethics Institute sponsors a variety of lectures, symposia, and discussions including the Greenwall Fellowship Program in Bioethics and Health Policy Colloquium Series and the Bioethics Interest Group (BIG) monthly discussion. The faculty associated with the Bioethics Institute teach courses, seminars, and "ethics rounds" in the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, and the School of Nursing. Recent areas of faculty research include AIDS, advance directives, reproductive rights, privacy and advances in genetics, managed care issues, the rationing and allocation of resources, and research ethics. The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research is dedicated to reducing the toll guns take on the lives of Americans. Through the development, analysis, and evaluation of effective prevention policies, we address guns as a major public health and legal issue. The center serves as a source of accurate firearm information for policy-makers, the media, scholars, advocates, and the public. The mission of the center is not one of advocacy for particular policies, but to serve as a resource in developing and providing the best information needed to reduce gun violence. With funding from the Joyce Foundation of Chicago, the Center for Gun Policy and Research began its work in January 1995. The center is located at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, within the Department of Health Policy and Management. The center engages in a variety of specific activities in addition to providing information to the media and others. These include legislative support and testimony, projects related to gun litigation, applied research, and education of the next generation of scholars in the field. The center reports the results of this work in research reports, peer-reviewed journals, the media, and at conferences. The Health Services Research and Development Center undertakes interdisciplinary research on issues related to the organization and financing of health care services and the impact of alternative approaches on access to services, quality of care, patient outcomes, and cost. Current research priorities are: managed health care, including capitation and risk adjustment, impact on physician requirements, and impact on access to care, treatment, and patient outcomes; quality of care and patient outcomes, including outcomes data collection methodologies, health status measurement, and utility of outcomes data for quality improvement; and impact of federal and state policies, including the impact of Medicaid policy changes and competitive forces in the health care market. Special emphasis is given to understanding the impact of innovative programs and policy changes on vulnerable populations, including elderly, children, mentally ill, and disabled. The center is based in the Department of Health Policy and Management and involves faculty from other departments in the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and the Johns Hopkins Health System. Opportunities are available for students to participate in ongoing studies and to have access to research data sets developed in previous studies. The Center for Hospital Finance and Management conducts research on incentive provider payment systems, regulatory, and competitive approaches to restraining health care costs, technology assessment, and financial management of health care institutions. The center, based in the Department of Health Policy and Management, is a multidisciplinary unit comprising clinicians, economists, statisticians, health services researchers, and administrators from the Schools of Public Health and Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Health System. The program on Medical Technology and Practice Assessment within the center is jointly sponsored by these organizations. The center's activities focus on studying, developing, and evaluating methods with special emphasis on identifying and using financial incentives to encourage efficient and effective hospital management. Staff members are studying the multiple factors that contribute to the variations in hospital utilization costs and technology in different settings. Other research is aimed at establishing a scientific basis for these variations in costs, and help form the basis for the development of incentive-based provider payment methods. The center is based in the Department of Health Policy and Management and involves faculty from other departments in the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and the Johns Hopkins Health System. Opportunities are available for students to participate in ongoing studies and to have access to research data sets developed in previous studies. The Center for Injury Research and Policy is a multidisciplinary program of research and training that addresses the injury problem on three fronts: preventing injurious events such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, house fires, and assaults; mitigating or preventing injuries when such harmful events occur; and improving emergency services, definitive trauma care, and rehabilitation services to minimize the individual and societal impact of injury. Established by the Centers for Disease Control, the center is based in the Department of Health Policy and Management with participants from many departments within the school and from other divisions of the university. Collaborating agencies outside the university include the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland, and the Division of Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The center stimulates interactions through working groups in injury epidemiology, prevention, biomechanics, acute trauma care, and rehabilitation. Research interests include injuries related to transportation, home, and occupational environments; children, the elderly, and other high-risk population groups; violence; evaluation of preventive programs, trauma care, and rehabilitation services; and legislation, regulation, and litigation in relation to injury prevention. Opportunities are available for students to participate in the research of center faculty. The Primary Care Policy Center was established in October 1996 with funding from the federal Bureau of Primary Health Care. The goals of the center are to conduct policy-relevant research that will provide insight into the effects of public and private health care policy on primary care for medically underserved individuals; expand knowledge on the most effective and cost-effective methods for CHCs to deliver primary care to vulnerable populations; and increase our understanding of the effects of alternative financing and organizational arrangements on primary care delivery for populations served by CHCs. To meet these goals, the center will conduct policy analyses; develop and test primary care assessment tools; and design and implement quality of care, case-mix, outcome, and cost effectiveness studies. The Center for Research on Services for Severe Mental Illness (SMI) is a collaborative effort of the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. The center conducts research directed at policy, organization, finance, and treatment related issues for persons with mental illnesses. Priority is given to research on severe mental illnesses and system capacity to meet the full range of service needs, including treatment, rehabilitation, income support, and housing. Policy-relevant research is addressing issues related to eligibility for health insurance, adequacy of insurance coverage, eligibility for welfare/disability, and the adequacy of available community services. Treatment related research includes issues related to cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches and methods for quality assurance and patient outcome assessment. The center is administratively based in the Health Services Research and Development Center in the Department of Health Policy and Management. The center is co-sponsored by the Department of Mental Hygiene, the Department of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine, and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene participates in the center's activities as a collaborating organization. It was established in 1987 and receives core support from the National Institute of Mental Health. The center provides opportunities for students to work on mental health services research projects. The Center for Law and the Public's Health was jointly created by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Georgetown University Law Center. Its primary academic home is the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The Center serves as a resource for public health practitioners, lawyers, policy makers, advocates, and the public, helping them understand and apply the law as a tool for the prevention of disease and injury. The Center was created in October 2000, and is the only such institution funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Center's specific aims regarding public health law are: - Enhance the visibility and effectiveness of law as a tool for the promotion of the public's health.
- Identify, develop, and deliver training programs that can effectively provide necessary information about public health law.
- Conduct legal research and analysis in targeted areas relevant to public health.
- Examine the public health law infrastructure and make recommendations for needed improvements.
- Promote communication and collaboration among interested groups.
- The Center will distribute its training, research, and other materials through a variety of media including reports, articles in professional journals, and a website.
The Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care is committed to improving the health of people whose conditions require complex, continuing, professional care. The Lipitz Center promotes multidisciplinary research and education on methods for coordinating the efforts of health care professionals, hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, rehabilitation facilities, emergency departments, and outpatient facilities in caring for people with chronic conditions. The Center strives to discover and disseminate practical, cost-effective approaches to providing comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate health care to chronically ill people and their families. The Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute is dedicated to the protection and promotion of health through education, research, and service in risk and policy. The Institute serves as an academic focus at the world's largest school of public health for addressing the critical science and policy issues inherent in managing disease risks from environmental and occupational exposures. The term "risk sciences" refers to the Institute's emphasis on improving our understanding of the scientific evidence characterizing health risks and for developing methods for synthesizing evidence for policy purposes. The term "public policy" refers to the Institute's development of creative approaches to assure that the decision-making process leads to improved public health. The Institute's flagship educational programs provide professionals and decision makers with the tools necessary to bridge health research, environmental science, and policy.Together, the Institute's complementary education, research, and service activities are intended to strengthen the application of science-based risk analysis and to encourage innovative public health solutions to complex risk problems. Organizationally, the Institute is a cross-departmental component of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Public Health. The Institute was founded in 1995 with an endowment from one of Johns Hopkins long-time supporters, the CSX corporation. The Institute receives ongoing support through gifts and grants from the public and private sectors. In planning its agenda, the Institute works closely with a multi-sectorial Advisory board and a multi-disciplinary Science Advisory Committee. The Center for Health Disparities Solutions is dedicated to the elimination of disparities in health and health care among racial and ethnic populations, socioeconomic groups, and geopolitical categories such as urban, rural, and suburban populations. The Center conducts multidisciplinary basic and translational research with the goals of advancing knowledge on the causes of health disparities and developing interventions to eliminate disparities. The Center for Public Health Preparedness is part of an integrated, national system of centers that provides a continuum of accessible learning opportunities for public health workers around the country. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the JHCPHP, along with 39 other centers around the nation, aims to provide training and education to personnel at the state and local health department levels, as well as in community-based organizations and other entities charged with carrying out CDC programs and the control and prevention of bioterrorism and infectious disease. The Johns Hopkins Northeast Regional Academic Environmental Public Health Center, formerly known as the Center for Excellence in Community Environmental Public Health Practice, was originally formed in September 2001 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Environmental Health to enhance environmental public health practice by: advancing research to enhance prevention and measure program effectiveness providing technical assistance in responding to community environmental health problems strengthening the community environmental public health workforce through training
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