Professor Michael Stoto gave two presentations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta in January, both based on his work with the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Research Center based at Harvard School of Public Health. The first took a systems perspective to ask what the 2009 H1N1 pandemic has taught us about the performance of public health disease surveillance systems in the United States. The second, given together with Vish Viswanath from Harvard, focused on opportunities and challenges in developing public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) measures and metrics, and was webcast to over 40 sites around the country.
Professor Stoto has also been working with a team of researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop a simulation model to guide policy decisions regarding breast cancer control. Dr. Stoto’s team adapted their national model to the District of Columbia, and in January met with local decision makers and advocates to present the findings.
Recently, students from Georgetown University's graduate and undergraduate programs have become student members of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School, taking IHI on-line courses in quality improvement (QI) and patient safety. In addition, these students have been placed in interdisciplinary teams with students from programs in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy to conduct QI projects at Georgetown University Hospital. These projects include infection control and the improvement of hand-off communications.