Overview of the Division of Population Health Sciences
Welcome to the Division of Population Health Sciences. PHS is a multidisciplinary Division within the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences and is directed by Dawn P. Misra, Ph.D. PHS Division faculty are drawn from the disciplines of anthropology, biostatistics, epidemiology, medicine, political science, psychology, and sociology as well as broadly from the field of public health. Our faculty work on studies addressing health at all stages in the life span, examining the health of newborns as well as the health of the elderly.
Two principles provide perspective for much of our work.
- Tremendous disparities exist in relation to race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.
- Cumulative exposures and experiences across the life course are intertwined with biological, social, and cultural determinants of health.
Our goal is to improve the health of populations, and in particular to reduce disparities in the health of populations across the life course. To accomplish this goal we:
- Conduct research to understand health, diseases, and their determinants across the life course, including comparative as well as within population research to understand and address health disparities.
- Develop partnerships and collaborations with clinicians, communities and institutions to improve understanding of the determinants of health and translate population health research findings into policy and practice.
View our Research Project Activities.
Awards
- Drs. James Janisse and Rosalie Young both received a 2009 Department of Family Medicine and Population Health Sciences Teaching Award.
- Dr. Jason Booza, Research Associate, was awarded a PhD from the Wayne State University Department of Political Science. In his dissertation entitled “Bridging the Contact and Threat Hypotheses: The Influence of Multiple Social Contexts, Contextual Congruency and Socioeconomic Environment on the Relationship Between Racial Composition and White Racial Attitudes”, he examined the influence of social contexts on communication patterns, social networks and information transmission.
- Dr. Kim Campbell-Voytal received the 2009 John Kenner & Marshall Klaus Award for Research Excellence, awarded by the Doula Organization of North America International
Editorships
- Dr. Julie Gleason-Comstock assumed the editorship of the Michigan Journal of Public Health, a peer-reviewed practice and research electronic journal.
- In April 2009, Dr. Victoria Neale was appointed Editor-elect for Family Practice: An International Journal for a 1 year period of strategic planning. In April 2010, she became the first American editor for this European journal (published by Oxford University Press). Dr. Neale continues as Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (JABFM), where she also manages the editorial office.
  
Keynotes, Plenaries, and Discussants
- Dr. Dawn Misra was a featured speaker on “Social and behavioral factors and preterm birth” at the Frontiers in Pregnancy Research, 2nd Annual Symposium, in Denver, Colorado.
- Dr. Victoria Neale will deliver an invited plenary at the June 2010 AHRQ PBRN meeting “Research Integrity Revisited: What Does It Mean In Practice Based Research Network Settings?”
- Dr. Xu presented some of her early findings from her prostate cancer study at the 2009 annual meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group, “Why don’t more men choose watchful waiting? A qualitative study.”
- Dr. Rosalie Young was an Invited Discussant for a session of the Gerontological Society of America.
Scholarly Service Highlights
Dr. Dawn Misra was an invited reviewer for the 2009 Institute of Medicine Gestational Weight Gain report. This is a long awaited revision to the 1999 report with a considerable impact for providers as well as researchers.
PHS Division Funding News
Dr. Victoria Neale (PI) and Dr. Kim Campbell-Voytal (co-investigator) were awarded an NIH Challenge grant: “Recruitment and Retention Best Practices in Primary Care Settings”. The objective of this grant is to identify best practices for recruiting and retaining diverse primary care patients into clinical research studies. This collaborative multi-site study engages 5 of the 8 members of the Primary Care Multiethnic Network (PRIME Net) consortium that conducts research with traditionally underrepresented and underserved population groups: African Americans (SOARnet in Dayton), Arab Americans (MetroNet in Detroit), Chinese Americans (CRN in San Francisco), Hispanic Americans (SPUR-Net in Houston), and the Navajo nation (RIOS Net in Albuquerque).
Funding Source: NIH National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Period of Support: 09/2009 – 08/2011
Direct Cost: $777,420 and Total Cost: $1,000,000
Dr. Dawn Misra (dual PI with Dr. Betsy Foxman, University of Michigan) was awarded NIH ARRA funding for a study entitled “Oral and Vaginal Microbes, Human Genotype, and Preterm Birth.” The overall goal of the study is to understand the role of microbes in the vaginal and oral cavities in triggering preterm birth, and how this role may be modified by other risk factors.
Funding Source: NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Period of Support: 09/2009 – 08/2011
Year 1 Direct Cost: $510,215 and Year 1 Total Cost: $1,000,000
PHS Division 2009 Publications
The faculty in our division enjoyed a very productive year, authoring 40 peer-reviewed papers published in 2009. Full 2009 Publications
Much of our work is in the area of health disparities and several of our publications focus on disparities with the African-American, Latino, and Arab-American populations most frequently the subject of this work. Disparities Publications
The life course as an organizing framework is also apparent in our research and publications, with work ranging from perinatal effects on later health to studies of reproductive outcomes in cancer survivors. Life Course Publications
 Contact:
Dawn P. Misra, Associate Professor and Director
Division of Population Health Sciences
101 E. Alexandrine, 2nd Floor
Detroit , MI 48201
Phone: (313) 577-8199
dmisra@med.wayne.edu
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