Physician Faculty Scholars
Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, (’09) published “Gender Differences in the Salaries of Physician Researchers” in JAMA (June 13, 2012). Jagsi and colleagues set out to determine whether salaries differ by gender in a relatively homogeneous cohort of physician researchers, and if so, whether these differences are explained by specialization, productivity, or other factors. A nationwide postal survey was sent to the 1,729 living recipients of the National Institutes of Health K08 and K23 awards in 2002–2003 for whom a mailing address could be located; the response rate was 71 percent. The mean salary within the cohort was $167,669 (95 percent CI, $158,417–$176,922) for women and $200,433 (95 percent CI, $194,249–$206,617) for men. Male gender was associated with higher salary (+ $13,399, P = 0.001), even after adjustment for specialty, academic rank, leadership positions, publications, and research time. The study received wide media coverage, including the Associated Press, Reuters, United Press International, Health Day, the Huffington Post, and the online editions of CBS News, ABC News, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Fox News, among other outlets.
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- Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico
- Clinical Scholars
- Executive Nurse Fellows
- Health & Society Scholars
- Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research
- Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative
- New Connections
- Nurse Faculty Scholars
- Physician Faculty Scholars
Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico
Meg Blume-Kohout, PhD, RWJF senior fellow and assistant professor of economics, recently published “Does Targeted, Disease-Specific Public Research Funding Influence Pharmaceutical Innovation?” in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (online May 23). Blume-Kohout and colleagues found that a sustained 10-percent increase in targeted, disease-specific National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding yields nearly a 4.5-percent increase in the number of related drugs entering clinical testing (phase I trials) after a lag of up to 12 years. The researchers observe that this finding reflects the continuing influence of NIH funding on the discovery and testing of new molecular entities. In contrast, they did not find evidence that increases in NIH extramural grant funding for research that focuses on specific diseases leads to an increase in the number of related treatments investigated in the more expensive, late-stage (phase III) trials.
Clinical Scholars
In a study that appeared in the July edition of European Urology, VA Clinical Scholar Charles D. Scales, Jr., MD, (’11) found that obesity, diabetes, and gout all increased the risk of kidney stones. Scales and his colleagues found that between 2007 and 2010, 8.8 percent of the U.S. population had a kidney stone—one out of every 11 people. In 1994, the rate was 1 in 20. This is one of the first studies to examine new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that was collected from 2007 to 2010. Scales received significant media coverage of this work in Health.com, MedPage, Vitals, MediLexicon, and other outlets.
Executive Nurse Fellows
Lillian Rivera, PhD, MSN, RN, (’99) Miami-Dade Health Department Administrator, recently drafted the report, “Expanding Supermarket Access in Areas of Need.” The report was part of a $2.7 million investment to fund 14 health department initiatives; it included a map showing large sections of northwestern Miami-Dade as “areas of greatest need.” In the report, Rivera noted that “250,000 Miami-Dade residents (10 percent) live in low-income areas that have poor supermarket access and higher-than-average death rates from diet-related causes.” Her work was featured in the Miami Herald.
Health & Society Scholars
Aric Prather, PhD, (’10) released a study that finds that losing sleep can reduce the effectiveness of vaccinations. According to Prather, this is the first study to confirm that a person’s sleep affects how he or she responds to vaccinations. People who slept less were over 11.5 times more likely to be left unprotected by vaccines. Researchers measured the sleep patterns of 150 adults who were administered the hepatitis B vaccine, a course of three shots. Those who slept less mounted fewer antibodies to the vaccine and, according to blood tests taken at each stage of vaccination, this group did not meet the standard of protection from the virus. The study, “Sleep and Antibody Resistance to Hepatitis B Vaccination,” was released August 1 in Sleep, the Academy of Medicine’s journal on sleep issues.
Amy Non, PhD, MPH, (’10) released a study on June 14 in the American Journal of Public Health dispelling the myth that West African ancestry is tied to higher rates of hypertension among African Americans. Instead, the study,“Education, Genetic Ancestry, and Blood Pressure in African Americans and Whites,” finds a significant association between education levels and high blood pressure in African Americans, but not African genetic ancestry. These findings dispel long-held beliefs that West African ancestry is a primary contributor to the high rates of hypertension among Black Americans. “Improved access to education in African American communities may help to reduce racial inequalities of health,” Non said. “We hope these findings will help African Americans and their physicians to better manage high blood pressure.” U.S. News & World Report, Health magazine, and MSN Health were among the outlets to report the findings.
Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research
In response to the Supreme Court’s 5–4 ruling upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, awardees James Morone, PhD, (’94 and ’02) Theda Skocpol, PhD, (’93) Lawrence Jacobs, PhD, (’93) and Andrea Louise Campbell, (’05) authored blog articles that were published on the New York Times’ Campaign Stops blog. Morone’s article, “Seven Consequences of the Health Care Ruling,” Skocpol and Jacobs’, “Bending Toward Universal Health Care,” and Campbell’s, “Will Time Heal Health Care Wounds?,” can be found on the New York Times’ Campaign Stops blog.
Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative
Susan Letvak, PhD, RN, (’08) associate professor of nursing at the University of North Carolina School of Nursing, recently co-authored the study, “Depression in Hospital-Employed Nurses,” published in the May/June issue of Clinical Nurse Specialist. The study, funded by the RWJF Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, finds that nurses suffer depression at twice the rate of the national population. The study was widely reported in the national media, including a blog post in the New York Times.
New Connections
James Guevara, MD, MPH, (’10) presented findings from his New Connections project at the 8th Annual Association of American Medical Colleges Physician Work Force Conference in Washington, D.C. Guevara conducted an environmental scan of U.S. medical schools to assess the impact of minority faculty diversity programs. Visit the New Connections website to learn more about his project.
Maria Solorio, PhD, (’11) co-authored a study, “A Family Intervention to Reduce Sexual Risk Behavior, Substance Use, and Delinquency Among Newly Homeless Youth,” published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. As a family medicine physician, Solorio centers his research on the development of community-level interventions to prevent HIV in youth.
Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Tracy Vericker, PhD, (’11) investigated the association between competitive food and beverage availability in schools and adolescent consumption patterns. Her analysis reveals that there is limited evidence linking adolescent intake behaviors to competitive food and beverage practices in school environments. The findings of her study are published in the journal Health Education & Behavior. Vericker is a Healthy Eating Research-New Connections grantee.
Nurse Faculty Scholors
Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN, Anna D. Wolf Chair and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and program director of the RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program, recently co-authored the study, “Couple Functioning and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in U.S. Army Couples: The Role of Resilience,” published in Nursing and Health. The study finds that civilian spouses and partners of those returning from combat may have posttraumatic stress symptoms and trauma histories that rival those of the combat veteran.
Jodi Ford, PhD, RN, (’10) assistant professor at the Ohio State University College of Nursing, was recently awarded a seed grant from Ohio State’s Initiative in Population Research for her study, “Linking Biological and Social Pathways to Adolescent Health.” It tests a high-quality, feasible, and cost-effective protocol for the collection of chronic stress biomarkers, to investigate the biological impact of social risk on adolescent health and behavior.
Sarah Szanton, PhD, CRNP, MSN, (’11) assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, recently received a $4 million Health Care Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to lead an expansion of her home-based intervention study with low-income older adults in Baltimore City. The original pilot intervention, CAPABLE, short for Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders, tested the effectiveness of multiple, complementary strategies to increase the subjects’ functioning and mobility while improving their physical environments, so that older low-income adults could continue to live at home. Szanton’s research was selected from more than 3,000 submissions for the award and was the only award offered to a nursing school.
Physician Faculty Scholars
Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, (’09) published “Geographic Variability of Childhood Food Allergy in the United States” in Clinical Pediatrics (May 17, 2012). The study aimed to describe the distribution of childhood food allergies in the United States. From June 2009 to February 2010, Gupta and colleagues administered a randomized survey to adults in U.S. households with at least one child younger than age 18. The authors analyzed data as weighted proportions to estimate prevalence and severity of food allergy by geographic location. They analyzed data for 38,465 children and found an association between urban/rural status and the prevalence of food allergies. Increasing population density corresponded with increasing prevalence, from 6.2 percent in rural areas (95 percent CI = 5.6–6.8) to 9.8 percent in urban centers (95 percent CI = 8.6–11.0). Odds of food allergy were graded, with odds in urban versus rural areas highest (OR = 1.7, 95 percent CI = 1.5–2.0), followed by metropolitan versus rural areas (OR = 1.4, 95 percent CI = 1.2–1.5), and so on. Significance remained after adjusting for race/ethnicity, gender, age, household income, and geographical latitude. The study received wide media coverage, including NBC’s Today Show, the PBS News Hour, CBS News online, the Chicago Tribune, the Atlantic, the Huffington Post, and Science Daily, among many others. Gupta was also promoted to associate professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; she will assume the post in September.