Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows, alumni and grantees. Some recent examples:

CBS Evening News profiled RWJF Community Health Leader Roseanna Means, MD, who founded the nonprofit Women of Means in 1988 to provide free medical care to homeless women in the Boston area. Today, 16 volunteer doctors and staff nurses provide care at the city’s shelters to women with unique sensitivities and needs. Read a post Means wrote about her nonprofit for the RWJF Human Capital Blog.

A study led by RWJF Clinical Scholars alumnus Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, finds more than 40 percent of American parents give over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to children under age 4, despite product label warnings to the contrary. Health Day and the Examiner report on the findings.

Helena Hansen, MD, PhD, an alumna of the RWJF Health & Society Scholars program, is the lead author of an analysis that concludes social determinants—rather than changes in the environment or flawed diagnostic criteria—help explain the dramatic rise in the number of Americans diagnosed with mental disorders in recent years. Health Canal and MedPage Today report on the findings.

Forty-seven percent of children with cancer who receive part of their treatment at home have been exposed to at least one medication error, according to a study led by RWJF Physician Faculty Scholars alumna Kathleen E. Walsh, MD, MSc. Those errors had the potential to harm 36 per 100 patients, and actually did cause injury to four per 100, MedPage Today reports.

The following are among the many honors received recently by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows, grantees and alumni.

The Chicago Parenting Program, an innovative program that supports healthy parenting and reduces behavioral problems among children, was recently added to the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow alumna Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN, was a driving force behind the program, which is used by Head Start centers in Chicago and New York City, among others.  RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar Susan Breitenstein, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC, and Executive Nurse Fellow alumna Sharon Tucker, PhD, RN, joined with Gross and others to conduct a study on the program, published in Research in Nursing & Health. It was recently named the journal’s Best Research Article award for 2012.

David Kindig, MD, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholars program director at the University of Wisconsin, and Health & Society Scholars program National Advisory Committee (NAC) member George Isham, MD, MS, co-chaired the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement, which is exploring factors beyond medical care that affect people's health. Among other participants in the Roundtable: RWJF Senior Program Officer Pamela Russo, MD, MPH, and Health & Society Scholars NAC Member James Knickman, PhD.

RWJF Health Policy Fellows alumna Carmen R. Green, MD, was appointed the University of Michigan Health System’s inaugural Associate Vice President and Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusion. In the position, Green will find and address inequalities in care, education and research, and promote health care careers to those from groups that are underrepresented in the field.

Sylvia Garcia, JD, a member of the RWJF Community Health Leaders program NAC, was elected to the Texas State Senate (District 6) in a run-off election to fill the seat previously held by the late state Sen. Mario Gallegos.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

The average emergency room visit costs 40 percent more than a month’s rent, according to a study led by RWJF Physician Faculty Scholar Renee Hsia, MD, MSc. The study also found the “sticker price” for emergency department care varies widely, the Washington Post Wonk Blog reports, with a sprained ankle ranging from $4 to $24,110. Among the other outlets to report on Hsia’s findings: Health Day, Bloomberg, and MSN.com. Read a post Hsia wrote for the RWJF Human Capital Blog about ambulance diversion and emergency room crowding.

RWJF Health & Society Scholar Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, was a guest on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to comment on a recently released longevity study. Montez' research in this area has focused on longevity among women, and she found that low-educated women (especially those without a high school education) have seen declines in their life expectancy, while life expectancy for men has stayed steady or increased. The Associated Press also reported on Montez research.

Americans support government intervention in matters of public health, such as curbing obesity, U.S. News & World Report says in reporting on research conducted by Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD, MPhil, an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research recipient. Three-fourths of respondents in a survey said they support laws that would discourage obesity in adults, with most favoring less-intrusive measures such as posting calorie counts.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

Health Canal reports on a study led by RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research alumna Joanna Kempner, PhD, that examines the social stigma surrounding chronic migraine sufferers. “The enduring image of the typical migraine patient is a white, middle-class woman who just isn’t good at handling stress,” Kempner said. “She is seen as neurotic and weak, a stigma that has been hard to change.”

RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar alumna Ruth Taylor-Piliae, PhD, RN, FAHA, was featured in MyHealthNewsDaily, an online health care news digest, for her study suggesting Tai Chi can reduce the number of falls in adults who have survived a stroke. Taylor-Piliae, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson, surveyed 89 stroke survivors and found that practicing Tai Chi helps alleviate balance problems that afflict many survivors. Read more about her work.

Medpage Today reports on research co-authored by William K. Hallman, PhD, director of the Rutgers University Food Policy Institute and recipient of an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, about how to motivate consumers to look for and discard recalled food products. Hallman participated in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee meeting this week on breaking through food recall “message fatigue” [free subscription].

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

An op-ed in the Star-Ledger reflects on the contributions of Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, during his more than two decades of service on the RWJF Board of Trustees, including eight years as chairman of the Board. Learn more about Kean’s commitment to leadership and service.

The Washington Post reports on an inhaler with a built-in Global-Positioning System (GPS), designed by RWJF Health & Society Scholars alumnus David Van Sickle, PhD, MA, that sends a signal with the time and location to a remote server every time a patient uses it. The data is then sent regularly to patients and physicians to help provide more comprehensive treatment. The data can also be used to find asthma “hot spots” in cities, where attacks are triggered, Health & Society Scholar Meredith Barrett, PhD, said. Read more about Van Sickle’s work here and here.

Judi Hilman, director of the Utah Health Policy Project and an RWJF Community Health Leader, gave comments to the Deseret News about decisions and deadlines Utah will have to meet in 2013 to comply with the health reform law.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy named RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, one of the “Five from the Nonprofit World Who Will Influence Public Policy in 2013.” She was also featured in a profile in the Newark, New Jersey, Star-Ledger, as part of a series profiling “some of the people who make the Garden State special.”

RWJF Senior Communications Officer Linda Wright Moore wrote a piece for Ebony.com about the work of Debbie Chatman Bryant and Ifeanyi Anne Nwabukwu, who were honored last year as RWJF Community Health Leaders for their work to fight cancer. Bryant cares for the underserved in the Low Country of South Carolina, and Nwabukwu helps African immigrant women in the Washington, D.C. area.

John R. Lumpkin, MD, MPH, senior vice president and director of the Health Care Group at RWJF, and Susan Bakewell-Sachs, PhD, RN, program director of the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI) and interim provost of the College of New Jersey, published a guest editorial in the Newark Star Ledger about NJNI’s work to solve the state’s nurse faculty shortage. Since its launch in 2009, NJNI has supported 61 New Jersey Nursing Scholars, providing tuition and other support while they pursue master’s or doctoral degrees that qualify them for faculty positions. NJNI is a program of RWJF and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

“I have a lot of experience when patients of mine come and say, ‘I was taking a green pill and now it’s pink. What's going on?’” Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH, an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research recipient, told Reuters. Kesselheim’s new research finds that patients are less likely to take their medication if the color changes, which often happens when they switch from a brand-name to a generic drug. The findings were also covered by the New York Times Well blog, CBS News, and Health Canal, among others. Read more about Kesselheim’s work here and here.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Human Capital Blog published more than 350 posts in 2012. On Friday, we shared five of the ten most-read posts published on this blog in 2012. Today, as we prepare to usher in a new year, we report on the top five.

Isolation in America: Does Living Alone Mean Being Alone? In this provocative piece, Eric Klinenberg, PhD, recipient of an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, discussed his well-reviewed book, “Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone.” It looks at the health problems associated with social isolation. Klinenberg calls the increase in people living alone the country’s “biggest demographic change since the baby boom.” His post attracted the biggest audience on this blog in 2012.

Supreme Court Ruling Offers a Sense of Hope. This very personal piece by Thomas Tsang, MD, FACP, an alumnus of the RWJF Health Policy Fellows program, was the second most-read post on this blog in all of 2012. Tsang reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding key elements of the Affordable Care Act from the perspective of immigrant families like his own. Tsang said he hoped the ruling would allow “the country [to] start healing together and work on finding better solutions for future generations who believe that life is indeed better here in America—as my parents and I still do.”

Legal Experts Were Completely Stunned by John Roberts’ Health Care Opinion.  This post by RWJF Investigator Mark Hall, JD, also addressed the U.S. Supreme Court’s health reform ruling.  “We all knew it would be close, but we never saw this coming,” he blogged about the Chief Justice’s vote to uphold the highly controversial individual mandate. It was the third most-read post on the RWJF Human Capital Blog in 2012.

The following are among the many honors received recently by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) named 70 new members and 10 foreign associates at its 42nd annual meeting. Among the new members with RWJF connections: RWJF Clinical Scholars alumni Christopher J. Elias, MD, MPH, and Tracy A. Lieu, MD, MPH; RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research recipients Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Jens Ludwig, PhD, Jack Needleman, PhD, FAAN, and Sara Rosenbaum, JD; and RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research alumnus Paula M. Lantz, PhD.

Sally S. Cohen, PhD, RN, FAAN, director of the RWJF Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative at the University of New Mexico (UNM), has been named to the UNM School of Nursing’s newly created Virginia P. Crenshaw Endowed Chair in Nursing—the School of Nursing's first endowed chair.

Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH, an alumnus of the Clinical Scholars program, was awarded the 2012 American Academy of Pediatrics Outstanding Achievement Award in the application of epidemiologic information to child health advocacy.

Robin Newhouse, an Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) grantee, was appointed vice-chair of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s Methodology Committee.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

The New York Times Well blog reports on a study by RWJF Health & Society Scholar Jason Fletcher, PhD, MS, that finds that about half of smokers carry a specific genetic characteristic associated with susceptibility to tobacco taxes and other health policy approaches intended to deter smoking. The other half have a different genetic mix and are largely unaffected by such measures. Medical XPress also reported on the findings. Read more about the study.

A study led by RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research recipient Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, MPhil, finds that “patients who are offered disclosure, explanations, apologies and monetary compensation for medical errors may be more likely to accept lower rather than maximum compensation, apparently due to distrust of the motives behind a full compensation offer,” Cardiovascular Business reports.

People who frequently use the Internet to get health or medical information are more likely to have a positive outlook on cancer prevention and diagnosis, a study co-authored by Health & Society Scholars alumnus Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD, MA, finds. United Press International reports on the findings.

Around the country, print, broadcast and online media outlets are covering the groundbreaking work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) leaders, scholars, fellows and grantees. Some recent examples:

A study led by RWJF Health & Society Scholars alumna Annice Kim, PhD, finds teens are more likely to buy tobacco products if they are prominently displayed in stores, Reuters reports. The researchers used a virtual reality game in a simulated online convenience store to collect their data. Health Day also reported on the findings.

News coverage of anti-Muslim fringe groups after September 11 “created the misperception they were mainstream organizations, and this perception enabled them to secure funding and build social networks that they may not [have] been able to do otherwise,” RWJF Scholar in Health Policy Research Christopher Bail, PhD, told United Press International about his study, recently published in the American Sociological Review. His findings also received coverage in Yahoo News, the Times Union, and Health Canal, among other outlets.

Nurse.com reports on a study by the RN Work Project that examined the characteristics and motivations that influence registered nurses to pursue bachelor of science in nursing or higher degrees. Read more about the study.

Debbie Chatman Bryant, DNP, RN, assistant director for cancer prevention and control and outreach at the Medical University of South Carolina, was honored at a local ceremony for receiving an RWJF Community Health Leader award. The Post and Courier reports that Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) made a surprise appearance at the event.