PI Highlight
Institute for Public Health
Did you ever wonder how to catch a hyena? In the course of working with the San Diego Somali Bantu community, evaluator Dr. Amy Pan learned how to catch a hyena and that drinking hyena fat is a traditional cure for asthma. Dr. Pan and other IPH staff are conducting a health needs assessment with the Somali Bantu community as part of a capacity building project funded by The California Endowment and Alliance Healthcare Foundation. Data collected during the needs assessment will be analyzed in partnership with the Board of Directors of the Somali Bantu Community of San Diego. Results will then be used by the organization to guide program planning.
This is just one example of how the Institute for Public Health (IPH) works with the community to improve public health services and outcomes. Their mission is to bridge academic research and public health practice by fostering full partnerships between academics and members of the community. Within these partnerships all partners are equally valued for their unique knowledge and expertise, and all members participate as both teachers and learners in the development and implementation of applied research and evaluation studies. Study results, which are mutually owned and disseminated, are used for reports, articles, grant proposals, workshops, and most especially, for informing and improving public health practice. The main focus is that of building community capacity and improved outcomes for community agencies and their members. This work is innovative because it is research that responds to community needs and promotes full community participation while maintaining the high standards of rigor and relevance that characterize the best of academic research.
The IPH was established in 1992. In 2003, Dr. Suzanne Lindsay, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in SDSU's Graduate School of Public Health was appointed Executive Director. Under her leadership, the IPH has become a remarkably productive, rapidly growing resource for hundreds of community collaborative partners working to solve a broad range of health problems within our local community and beyond. In the last year, Dr. Lindsay has received approximately $2 million for the Institute's programs from various sponsors including: California Department of Health Services, California Department of Public Health, San Diego Unified School District, California Endowment, Family Health Centers of San Diego, and the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.
Since 2003, the IPH has successfully partnered with the community on 55 projects including teen pregnancy prevention, human trafficking, youth violence prevention, transitional housing, domestic violence prevention, homelessness, breast and cervical cancer screening, youth mentoring, safe schools, tobacco control in the LGBT community, navigating the cancer diagnosis and treatment system, obesity and overweight in various populations, hepatitis B prevention and immigrant community health needs, to name a few.
The IPH has three unique units of service. The research and evaluation unit assists with the design and implementation of practice-based research and evaluation projects; the technology unit assists with the development of databases, data collection strategies, and web-based communication systems; and the curriculum unit assists with literature review and the development of trainings for SDSU public health students, community agency staff and professional public health providers.
To learn more about the IPH, visit http://iph.sdsu.edu.