Foundation grants $450,000 to help improve public health service quality
| May 21, 2008 | |
Public health departments across North Carolina stand to benefit from a new $449,590 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at improving the quality of public health programs.
Photograph, Dr. Ed Baker
Dr. Edward L. Baker, research professor in the Department of Health Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and director of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the School, will serve as principal investigator of the project. North Carolina is one of 16 states chosen to receive grants as part of a national program which seeks to improve the performance of local and state public health departments and the health of their communities. The grant will go towards supporting the implementation of projects to address specific health outcomes, such as decreasing the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases and reducing the burden of illness due to tobacco or alcohol use. It also will fund efforts to advance accreditation of public health departments under a voluntary accreditation program due to begin in 2011. To date, 34 North Carolina counties and the state itself have passed strict accreditation performance standards. # # # For more information, visit sph.unc.edu/nciph/nciph-home/. School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
