Harness Big Data for Health, Well Being and the Environment
Taking more steps daily may lead to a longer life
May 20, 2021 Taking more steps per day, either all at once or in shorter spurts, may help you live longer, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference 2021.
Predicting potential pitfalls of battery-driven power systems
May 14, 2021 Batteries could be critical in the transition to clean energy, but the same characteristics that make them attractive could enable users to exploit the electric power system for private profit while increasing overall costs and making grid management more difficult.
Obesity may slow progress against cancer deaths
May 12, 2021 Cancer death rates have fallen dramatically in the United States. Factor in obesity, however — as Gillings School researchers did, and the picture changes. A study published May 10 in JAMA Network Open reports that obesity-related cancer deaths are improving, but at a slowing pace.
“Geography of risk” impacts analysis of racial inequities in COVID-19 deaths
April 5, 2021 In a new commentary, Gillings School epidemiologists call for an approach to monitoring COVID-19 data that compares risks across racial and ethnic demographics in order to create a more equitable response to the pandemic.
New ozone air pollution maps support Global Burden of Disease study
March 8, 2021 New research led by UNC Gillings School students and faculty has mapped global ground-level ozone concentrations by year using a data fusion. This is the first time this method has been applied to ozone observations globally. The findings were used by the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study, which estimated that about 365,000 people around the world died in 2019 from exposure to ozone pollution.
New dashboard estimates number of NC residents eligible for each vaccine phase
February 23, 2021 As North Carolina prepares to enter Phase 3 of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the North Carolina Institute for Public Health has created a set of dashboards to assist local planning by providing valid population estimates for the phased distribution of the vaccine in the state.
Activity trackers may help patients maintain physical activity after cardiac rehabilitation discharge
February 4, 2021 A new study that includes research from Dr. Kelly Evenson suggests that activity trackers could help patients maintain necessary levels of physical activity after they are discharged from outpatient cardiac rehabilitation.
Study shows new machine learning method may lead to optimal cancer treatment decisions
December 4, 2020 Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University have developed a computational framework to generate evidence-based optimal cancer treatment decisions informed by a patient’s genomic biomarkers. The findings, which may aid in the development of precision cancer treatments, are published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.
ACS/Pfizer grant funds research into racial disparities in breast cancer care quality in North Carolina
December 3, 2020 The grant is part of a national campaign focused on optimizing cancer outcomes for people of color by identifying and eliminating systemic race-related barriers and disparities in the delivery of care that impact outcomes across all cancer types.
PCORI funds UNC research to assess representativeness of COVID-19 treatment trials
November 16, 2020 The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is funding research at the Gillings School to compare how participants in COVID-19 clinical trials differ from real-world patients infected with the virus.
