Partnerships
Through its commitment to engaging communities and other stakeholders in research, Feinberg School of Medicine is positioned to respond to growing demands among policy makers, public health officials, health systems, community leaders and patients who seek solutions for individual and population health and health equity. By embracing the principles of collaboration, respect, equity, transparency and impact, we look forward to continuing to elevate the conduct and impact of community-engaged research for Northwestern University, for Chicago and for the nation.
Dementia-Friendly Library
"REACH to Faith 2.0: Building faith based community capacity to disseminate and implement culturally appropriate dementia-friendly resources, research evidence and program interventions in Woodson Library": This partnership between Darby J. Morhardt, PhD, and the Endeleo Institute contributed to the development of Chicago's first dementia-friendly library.
Lung Cancer Survivorship
"Building Capacity for a Community-Based Research Partnership to Optimize Physical Activity in Lung Cancer Survivors": This partnership between Prakash S. Jayabalan, MD, PhD, and Gilda’s Club led to a lung cancer service grant from Astellas Pharmaceutical and actively engaged Feinberg students and residents in the community.
Walking Clubs in Austin
"Westside Health Authority and Physical Therapy: Increasing Understanding to Promote Health": This partnership between co-leads William E. Healey, PT, EdD, and Gail M. Huber, PT, PhD and Westside Health Authority actively engaged Feinberg students and led to the creation of walking clubs in the Austin community.
Research Ministries
"Pastors for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR): Developing Partnership Infrastructure to Facilitate Engagement in PCOR Research Projects": This partnership between Rebecca Johnson, PhD, and Pastors 4 PCOR supported the development of research training for faith-based organizations and led to the development of Research Ministries & Research Ministry Ambassadors.
EpiPens in Schools
"Improving Asthma Verification and Medication Access in Chicago Public Schools": This partnership between Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, and Chicago Public Schools led to district-wide policy changes, an EpiPen program that saves an estimated 40 lives per year and contributed to the passage of two Illinois state policies.
Community Mental Health
"Developing a promotora model to address community-defined mental health and metabolic health needs in Little Village": This partnership between Matt O'Brien, MD, and Universidad Popular, St. Anthony Hospital and Enlace led to a $2 million service grant for 20 community mental health workers.
Cardiac Arrest Awareness
"South Asian Heart Lifestyle Intervention": This partnership between Namratha Kandula, MD, MPH, and Metropolitan Asian Family Services sustained all-women fitness classes at Skokie Park District and led to multiple grants, including one to increase awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in the South Asian Community.
Cooking Up Health
"Cooking Up Health: Docs and Kids": The model created from the partnership between Melinda Ring, MD, Common Threads and Chicago Public Schools is now being shared nationally. The resulting culinary medicine course teaches grade-schoolers about health as part of MD students' training.
Health Screenings
"Barriers to Prostate Cancer and HIV Screening in African-American Men in Chicago": This partnership between Adam Murphy, MD, and Project Brotherhood is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity program and Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative.
Alzheimer's Education
"Korean-American Alzheimer's Research and Education": This partnership between Darby J. Morhardt, PhD, and HANA Center led to Alzheimer's education for the Korean-American community.
Working on Womanhood
"Working on Womanhood": This partnership between Rebecca Ford-Paz, PhD, and Youth Guidance led to a school-based counseling and mentoring program to help at-risk girls address behavior health problems.
Adolescent Depression
"Raising Awareness and Promoting Early Intervention for Depressed Latinx Adolescents": This partnership between Rebecca Ford-Paz, PhD, Healthcare Alternative Systems, Alternatives and Alivio Medical Center developed a culturally tailored literacy and outreach training program to help address high rates of depression among Latino youth.
School Violence
"Addressing School-Related Violence in Roseland”: This partnership between Virginia Bishop, MD, MPH, Demoiselle 2 Femme and a number of community organizations in Roseland led to the creation of a mental health resource list specific to the area.
Healthier Park Vending
“Chicago Park District’s 100% Healthier Snack Vending Initiative”: This partnership between Maryann Mason, PhD, Chicago Park District and other community organizations led to improved food environment in Chicago parks.
Early Stroke Recognition
“Community Engagement for Early Recognition and Immediate Action in Stroke”: This partnership between Shyam Prabhakaran, MD, and a number of community and patient stakeholders helped increase the number of early hospital arrivals after stroke in two high-risk Chicago neighborhoods.
Reducing Health Disparities
"Reducing Cancer Health Disparities Among Chicago-Area Latinas": This partnership between David Victorson, PhD, and ALAS-WINGS supported mobile health and yoga therapy interventions for Latina cancer survivors and their friends and family.
Helping Babies Thrive
"Courage to Love: Helping Babies Thrive": This partnership between Matthew Davis, MD, and The Center for Faith & Community Health Transformation supports communities such as Auburn Gresham, where rates of pre-term birth and infant mortality are too high.
Youth-Led Research
"Disseminating and Activating Youth-Led Research": This partnership between Michael Fagen, PhD, MPH, and Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health helped young adults develop research and leadership skills and developed a Birth Justice toolkit.
Bereavement Services
"Improving services for people affected by the death of a child": This partnership between Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH, Greater Illinois Pediatric Palliative Care Coalition and a coalition of providers and stakeholders led to the creation of a referral database and process to support those affected by the death of a child.
Disabilities & Aging
"Understanding overlapping issues in disability and aging": This partnership between Elliot Roth, MD, Rebecca Johnson, PhD, CJE SeniorLife and Access Living explores the issues involved in maintaining a positive quality of life as one ages with a disability.
Healthcare Justice
"Healthcare Justice for People with Disabilities": This partnership between Susan Magasi, PhD, and Access Living supports cancer screening, peer Medicaid navigation and research participation for people with disabilities.
HIV Prevention
"HIV Prevention for Chicago's Latinx Community": This partnership between Gregory Phillips, PhD, and CALOR, encouraged the use of PrEP, the use of a once-daily oral medication to prevent HIV infection, in Latinx communities.
Breast Cancer Survivorship
"Improving Health for Hispanic Breast Cancer Survivors": This partnership between Betina Yanez, PhD, and ALAS-WINGS led to the creation of an online health guide for Hispanic women completing active treatment for breast cancer.
Newborn Screenings
“Accuracy and Cost Analysis of Transcutaneous Bilirubin Screening in Primary Care”: Through their partnership, Shannon Haymond, PhD, and Nivedita Mohanty, MD, of Erie Family Health Center studied newborn hyperbilirubinemia screenings at a predominantly Hispanic practice a practice and developed a clinical protocol for transcutaneous bilirubin measurement.
Premature Infants & Hypertension
“Hypertension in Premature Infants in the Pediatric Office”: Gal Finer, MD, PhD, and Benjamin Kornfeld, MD, of North Suburban Pediatrics, led this study, which found that many practices do not comply to blood pressure screening guidelines for children under 3 who have a history of prematurity. MPH student Jannie Bolotnikov shared the findings with the practices, which led to enhanced compliance.
If you're interested in forming a partnership, please contact us here. Many of the partnerships above have been supported by seed grant funds through the Center for Community Health. Learn more about open opportunities.