WELCOME

The Health Policy Research Program at the Public Policy Center was one of 11 UI programs to receive a prestigious NIH Challenge Grant. The study, called First Preventive Dental Visit: Disparities in Needs, Costs + Behavioral Insights will evaluate several issues related to a Medicaid-enrolled child's first preventive dental visit. The research team includes Peter Damiano, Elizabeth Momany, Raymond Kuthy, Michael Jones, George Wehby, Natoshia Askelson and Donald Chi. Read more

PPC Transportation Policy graduate research assistant Beth Westlake took second place in the Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC) Poster Competition, held November 4 as part of the Iowa DOT Traffic and Safety forum in West Des Moines. Her poster presented an analysis of the types of distractions teenagers engage in while driving.

Researchers in the PPC Human Factors Research Program are featured this month in an article in the youth magazine Odyssey titled Building Better Drivers. The article discusses research done at the Center on driver distraction, technology in vehicles, and teen driver-training programs using in-car cameras. PPC reseachers have been at the forefront of study in this area, which has recently garnered national attention. Read the article

Adweta Joshi and Suyun Ma, both graduate research assistants in the PPC Transportation Policy program, were awarded the second prize in a poster contest sponsored by the American Planning Association (APA). Their study was entitled Identifying Spatial Relationship between Elderly Population Distribution and Crashes Related to Elderly Drivers in Des Moines, Iowa. It used GIS technology to identify elderly population clusters and then examine the effect of these on crash locations involving elderly drivers. The results showed that crashes were grouped in areas with high counts or low counts of elderly residents; area with a random distribution of elderly citizens showed no crash clusters.

The fifth event in the PPC's Forkenbrock Series, a symposium titled Energy and Climate Change in the Midwest: Creating Opportunities in the New Economy, took place October 16-17. The symposium gathered together state and federal policymakers with industry representatives, climate change scientists and engineers, economists, and entrepreneurs in the field of renewable energy, among others. The discussion was lively, and the exchange of ideas fruitful. Click here to read more about the symposium, access presentations, or fill out our symposium evaluation.

The UI College of Public Health and the Public Policy Center are co-sponsoring a panel discussion titled Health Care Reform: A Civil Discourse. The interdisciplinary panel will include Iowa State Senator Joe Bolkcom, Professor Sheldon Kurtz from the UI College of Law, Dr. Jean Robilliard, VP for Medical Affairs at the UI, and Iowa State Representative Renee Schulte. PPC Director Peter Damiano will moderate the discussion, which will take place on Monday, October 19, from 7:00-8:30 pm in the Shambaugh Auditorium of the UI Main Library.