Schroeder has argued that much of our
health and wellness is within our reach, and that behavior may account for 30
to 40% of our disease burden. He notes that we can improve our
international ranking on many measures of health through simply implementing things we already know. Likewise we recently made the
case for vastly reducing the cancer burden by acting on what we know (see article). For a quick summary see Scientific American or The Atlantic.
An expanding range of research activity by
faculty members at Washington University School of Medicine addresses everyday
problems in population health and the translation of research discoveries to
the delivery of effective health services for the population living in St.
Louis and across the State of Missouri.
Examples of effective services include the
research and delivery of prevention by Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, Vice-Chair for
clinical research in the department of obstetrics and gynecology. The CHOICE project, offers and a revolutionary example of increasing access to contraception to
reduce unintended pregnancies in the region.
Dr. Platz, pediatrics, offers an innovative
resources for adolescents to access medical care in the community, at no cost.
Drop in and see the Spot.
Within the Siteman Cancer Center and the
Department of Surgery, the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities
(PECaD) engages a range of community partners in activities that promote
wellness, increase access to cancer prevention services, and aim to reduce
disparities in the burden of cancer in our community (see articles). For example, we recently
partnered with People's Health Centers to increase access to mammography in North County.
Within the medical center, as a resource for the region, the Institute for
Clinical Translational Science offers resources for community members to engage
in research projects. Our ongoing studies of obesity and cancer bring many different disciplines together to address this growing problem.
Faculty members are pursing a broad range of
research and delivery projects that build on the resources of the medical
center and WUSM to bring state of the art discoveries to everyday care and
applications in the community. Many of these are summarized on our web site. Briefly, Dr. Kathleen Wolin leads a trial of weight loss after breast cancer to address ways
we may improve outcomes for women with breast cancer. Dr. Kim Kaphingst studies communication
of genetics testing for women with breast cancer and their family members. Dr. Mary
Politi collaborates with clinicians to study how to better engage doctors and
patients in shared decision making. Dr. Erika Waters studies how we can improve the
way we present risk. Dr. Aimee James is studying the different ways we may work to
improve access to colorectal cancer screening in our community, and Dr. Siobhan
Sutcliffe is studying how exposure in adolescent and young adult years may
increase risk of prostate cancer. Dr. Bettina Drake is engaged with community members to understand how African American men relate to research projects and
how we can better meet the needs of men who, because of their race, are at
increase risk prostate cancer. Dr. Sarah Gehlert has created a resource for women
in North St Louis to increase access to information about breast cancer and
wellness. Dr. Melody Goodman is working to understand how we might improve the
reporting of disparities and how the measures we chose when reporting can
influence how we move forward to reduce these inequalities. At the broader
level of how our society is structured and influences our health, Dr. Christie
Hoehner is evaluating how the design of our towns and cites is related to physical
activity and obesity. Dr. Katie Stamatakis is studying how our public health departments
respond to obesity and work to reduce obesity in our communities.
Colleagues in internal medicine are studying
how overweigh and obesity at the time of diagnosis of lymphoma may change response
to therapy for this malignancy, and how we can improve the quality of colon
cancer screening. In anesthesiology, colleagues are working to improve the
experience of surgery and outcomes after anesthesia (see article).
The range of research projects led by a faculty
members in the School of Medicine is clearly broad and encompassing many approaches
to improve health in our society. Key crosscutting issues include access to
prevention services, behavior strategies that will reduce the incidence of
cancer and many other chronic diseases, and policy approaches to reduce
exposure to carcinogens in our homes, workplaces, and society.
In addition to these ongoing research projects,
faculty at Washington University School of Medicine undertake research projects to bring services to the underserved, to improve the routine
care of pregnant women, those undergoing an aesthetic procedures, and those
using other preventive services.
This exciting range of research and delivery projects offers unique
opportunities for participation in state-of-the-art research by trainees and by
community members.
