News from the School of Public Health

This story was originally published in Maryland Today.

As the U.S. government promised to drastically accelerate the pace of testing for novel coronavirus, UMD’s top expert on viral disease transmission said the response should focus on slowing the spread of the epidemic to avoid overwhelming public health systems.

A new report, “Improving America’s Oral Health Literacy,” published by the Delta Dental Institute and co-authored by Alice Horowitz, a research associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Health, calls on the need for health literacy to address oral health in the United States.  

The University of Maryland School of Public Health held its first Big Data in Public Health conference on Feb. 28, with 202 attendees from 35 different institutions and organizations. 

In this year's conference, 10 speakers from different application areas of big data analytics—including social media, genomics and bioinformatics, health care, imaging and neuroscience—presented about their cutting edge research using big data and its connection with public health data science. 

Renee received her nursing degree from Bowie State University and was working as a bedside nurse at Washington Hospital Center when she became discouraged with patients that seemed to come back over and over again with preventable illnesses. Renee said she was burnt out and called her mentor to ask if there was any way to help prevent patients from having these issues.

Discrimination increases the risk for negative cardiovascular health outcomes, according to a new study led by Quynh Nguyen in the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

Devlon Jackson, assistant research professor of behavioral and community health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, received an Investigator Diversity Research Supplement grant to explore how Health Information Technology (HIT) can improve health for African Americans and Hispanics living with mental health issues and chronic diseases.