For several years, the Center for Tobacco Independence (CTI) has contracted to have phone surveys conducted with a sample of people who call the Center's Help Line. Data from these surveys provide a great deal of information such as the rate of success in quitting tobacco and the methods that are most successful. Beginning in 2009, the Muskie School's Survey Research Center (SRC) became CTI's survey contractor, conducting 730 telephone interviews with a random sample of people who called the Help Line. Following up on the success of that study, SRC will conduct the phone interviews in 2012.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is one of Maine’s standard health behavior surveillance systems, data from which informs policy development, program planning, and other public health interventions for chronic disease prevention. This project will assist the Maine BRFSS coordinator and the Maine CDC to achieve BRFSS objectives. Muskie School staff will update the BRFSS interactive web query as well as maintain multiple-year standardized datasets, add the most recent year of data, and update documentation. Muskie staff will also perform other analyses as necessary, including multivariate and trend analyses to help the Maine CDC better understand prevalence, risk factors and disease management for health behaviors and conditions (such as diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular disease) that impose a heavy burden on the residents of Maine and its health care system.
Established in 1992, the mission of the Maine Rural Health Research Center is to inform health care policy making and the delivery of rural health services through high quality, policy-relevant research, policy analysis and technical assistance on rural health issues of regional and national significance. The Center's core funding is provided by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy.
This study will examine the impact of program cost sharing features on the access to care for low income persons and populations who face particular barriers to care due to pre-existing health conditions. The Muskie School is seeking the cooperation of the states of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire in making this study feasible. Such cooperation would require assisting the research team in accessing claims and administrative databases for persons enrolled in the state access initiatives.
With funding from the Maine Health Access Foundation, Muskie School faculty and staff worked with the Maine Development Foundation and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine to develop and deliver a day-long educational forum for the Maine legislature on health care on January 26, 2007. In addition to a keynote address by Dr. Karen Davis from the Commonwealth Fund, breakout sessions with accompanying Issue Briefs were held on a variety of topics including Medicaid, rural health, workforce, health information technology, state health reform, Maine?s Dirigo health reform initiative, behavioral health, public health, and Maine?s aging population. All Issue Briefs and presentations from the Forum are available for viewing and download from the Muskie School?s website at http://muskie.usm maine.edu
The goals of this cooperative agreement are to build and enhance the capacity of Maine State government, the University of Southern Maine, and Maine's public health systems to improve the health of Maine's population. Project goals objectives address 1) expanding and coordinating public health research and evaluation, 2) developing and piloting model program systems, 3)building human resource capacity for program performance, and 4) designing and delivering new education and training programs to support the developemnt of public health leadership and a more effective professional public health workforce.
Maine DOE as applicant is partnering with Muskie to perform activities in three focus areas: 1)Provide training for Child Nutrition (CN)food service professionals and Childcare Providers to enable them to prepare and serve nutritious and appealing meals based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans with a focus on increased fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products. 2)Provice multi-faceted, integrated nutrition education for children by offering training, technical assistance, curriculum materials, and resources to support classroom nutrition education and increased opportunites for physical activity be enrolling up to 120 elementary and middle school teachers in MNN's Maine-ly Nutrition Project. 3)Provide youth leaders with multi-faceted, nutrition education activities to effect positive changes in food consumption patterns and physical activity behaviors eith their peers.
This project will consist of evaluation and data analysis activities to support the Maine Physical Activity and Nutrition Program (PANP) of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Serve as lead for design, planning, and evaluation of the program intervention to address obesity prevention, and provide technical assistance for and coordination of program evaluation activities with PANP staff, contractor for HMP evaluation, and key state partners.
USM, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Portland, ME
Maine Medical Center, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Portland, ME
MaineHealth, Portland, ME
Abstract:
The goal of this project is to expand Maine's capacity to conduct research that contributes to improvements in the quality of chronic illness care. The project combines the resources and expertise of two nationally recognized research institutions, USM's Institute for Health Policy, and Maine Medical Center (MMC)'s Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and two provider-practitioner organizations, MaineHealth/MMC and USM's College of Nursing and Health Professions. The project aims are to create a Practice Improvement Research Center to develop and support collaboration among researchers from the participating institutions; develop tools and procedures to conduct practice-based health services research on quality improvement (QI); develop the investigators' research skills to study practice-based QI; and conduct a study of the characteristics of primary care practices that have successfully engaged in quality improvement activities for individuals with chronic illness.
complete an organizational assessment, including assessment of existing evaluation efforts in nine public health program areas. Project staff will use the assessment data to The Association of Public Health Laboratories will contract with Muskie School to design an organizational quality improvement plan and approach. Results and recommendation will be used by APHL to launch a more systemic quality improvement plan.
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