Enhancing Health Executive Committee2017 Annual Report

Nan Crouter and Craig Hillemeier, January 24, 2018

Results and Impact to Date (2017 accomplishments)

  • February 13, 2017 Employee Health and Wellness Center opened on UP campus—collaboration between CoN and Penn State Health; later may involve wellness activities that bring in other colleges.
  • April 7, 2017 Forum held at Penn State Harrisburg—well attended; audience liked our ideas; main new idea to come out of it was importance of generating a responseto the opioid epidemic and to substance use/addiction more generally
  • Aligned the Enhancing Health Executive Council with the Executive Committee of the University Health Sciences Council (UHSC) to provide better integration and focus.
  • Throughout 2017, University Health Sciences Councilheld interdisciplinary panels by faculty researchers to identify points of potential collaboration and provide a common frame of reference. Topics included Addiction, Cancer, Health Disparities and Vulnerable Populations, Microbiome, and Regenerative Medicine.
  • College of Medicine created the Penn State Addiction Center for Translation (PS ACT), under the leadership of Dr. Sue Grigson, Professor of Neural and Behavioral Sciences.
  • In August 2017 we created four “working groups” of faculty from different colleges and campusesto address each of the four domains in our strategic plan. These groups have been uneven in terms of activity level but most submitted at least one proposal in Round 1
  • First round of submissions through the RFA process:
  • 16 submissions to Enhancing Health
  • Four proposals ultimately received funding:
  • Vasanth Honavar (IST), “Digital Collaboratory for Precision Health Research”
  • Susan McHale (SSRI), “Integrated Data Systems Solutions for Health Equity”
  • Andrew Patterson (Ag Sci/Huck), “Enhancing Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Cancer Research Activity Across PSU Campuses”
  • Dennis Scanlon (HHD), “On Campus Ambulatory Intensive Care (AIC) to Improve Health and Wellness of Penn State Employees and Adult Beneficiaries with Chronic Illnesses”

Current/Projected Activities

  • Supporting the Penn State Cancer Institute in its quest for National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation (proposal goes in Fall 2018)
  • Supporting the proposed Consortium on Substance Use Prevention, an SSRI proposal modelled after the successful Child Maltreatment Solutions Network.
  • January 12, 2018 Penn State Summit on the Opioid Epidemic attracted ~200 PSU researchers
  • A Penn State team involving multiple colleges and spanning UP and Hershey has been awarded a 3-month, almost $400K contract entitled, “Estimating the Societal Costs of the Opioid Epidemic in PA.” The results of this effort, which builds on the Integrated Data Systems Consortium (see McHale project funded in round 1), may lay the groundwork for litigation by the states.
  • Working with development and administration to build support for an Institute for Biomedical and Health Sciences

Overall Progress toward Goals

  • Goal 1: Improve faculty, staff, and student health
  • Creation of Employee Health and Wellness Center
  • Scanlon proposal funded through RFA
  • Goal 2: Support research, teaching and outreach focused on health disparities and vulnerable populations, with attention to substance use prevention and the opioid epidemic
  • Conversation and several proposal submissions on health inequity but none received funding through the RFA
  • SSRI’s January 2018 Penn State Summit on the Opioid Epidemic drew ~ 200 participants from numerous campuses, colleges, and disciplines.
  • Goal 3: Buildresearch Infrastructure, particularly the connections between the Hershey campus, UP and other campuses engaged in health-related research
  • McHale, Honavar, and Patterson proposals funded through RFA are all relevant to this goal
  • New initiatives related to addiction and substance use prevention will provide additional linkages across campuses
  • The RFA process yielded a proposal for a new Gene Editing and Tissue Bank Core Facility that will be funded through a different mechanism but which will still contribute additional needed infrastructure
  • Goal 4: Drive research excellence, with an emphasis on cancer
  • Patterson proposal funded through RFA