Back in 2015 Maria heard a knock on the door of her home in Southwest Detroit. When she opened it she found a team member from Green and Healthy Homes Initiative Detroit-Wayne County. He had good news. He told her he could help make her home healthier and safer for little or no cost. That’s what GHHI Detroit-Wayne County does. A collaboration of nearly 50 partner organizations, it is committed to create green, healthy and safe homes for children and families living in Detroit and Wayne County.  

MUNCIE, Ind. — Heather Lamb and Jessica Johnson were like tag-team partners on a December day at the Open Door Health Services clinic.  

Back in 2015 Maria heard a knock on the door of her home in Southwest Detroit. When she opened it she found a team member from Green and Healthy Homes Initiative Detroit-Wayne County. He had good news. He told her he could help make her home healthier and safer for little or no cost. That’s what GHHI Detroit-Wayne County does. A collaboration of nearly 50 partner organizations, it is committed to create green, healthy and safe homes for children and families living in Detroit and Wayne County.

Scientists are joining a major U.S. government programme that seeks to understand how environmental, behavioural and social factors affect children’s health. “The purpose of the national meeting is to try to combine the cohorts,” says Douglas Ruden, director of epigenomics at Wayne State University’s Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Detroit, Michigan, and a member of the ECHO steering committee who is helping to lead a participating cohort. “They all have different goals and study designs, and somehow they have to merge them into one cohort — and that’s the hard part.

A woman’s health from her own experiences in utero and forward has an impact on the birth outcomes of the next generation. Dr. Dawn Misra is the Associate Chair for Research and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Wayne State University. Her research focuses on social and biomedical factors which may influence perinatal outcomes and which may explain the increased risks of infants born to poor and minority women. Learn more about Misra.

Whether institutional or overt racism contributed to the Flint water crisis is at the center of an investigation and forthcoming report being completed by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. The first draft of the six-to-eight-chapter, 70- to 80-page report is expected to be complete and submitted to the Commission by late December or early January. Economist and Wayne State University Law School professor Peter J. Hammer co-authored a 67-page testimony document submitted to the commission in June in which he asserts "strategic racism" played a role in efforts to "disregard the lives" of Flint residents and make the Flint River the city's interim water source after ending the water agreement with Detroit.

Researchers at Wayne State University are looking at how health is affected when our genes and environmental factors are mixed. The study, in its early stages, is looking at specific exposures like how specific genes react when exposed to caffeine. Assistant Professors of Molecular Medicine and Genetics Francesca Luca and Roger Pique Regi say so far the results show almost everything in our daily environment has a direct link and influence on our genetic make-up. Luca and Pique Regi told WDET’s Amy Miller that the study sample is very small.

Scientists at the Wayne State University School of Medicine's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics have shown for the first time the extent by which interactions between environmental exposures and genetic variation across individuals have a significant impact on human traits and diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity, strengthening the case for precision medicine initiatives. The discovery is particularly important when considering communities with different ancestries sharing the same risk environment -- the case for many urban communities, including Detroit, the researchers said. 

Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the Wayne State School of Medicine, has launched a new bachelor’s degree of science in public health program. The rise of environmental health issues and global disease concerns such as the Flint water crisis and the Zika virus have dramatically increased interest and job growth in the field of public health. Graduates of the new major and minor programs will have the ability to assess and prevent health disparities in Detroit and beyond, as well as diagnose and research public health problems, improve public health through human and environmental interventions, and educate the public regarding healthful choices in life. “Public health is a field that all students can identify with,” said Heather Dillaway, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “A public health curriculum can teach us about the safety and well-being of individuals, families and entire populations – both now and for generations to come. Studying this critical topic at WSU will allow students to engage in health disparity and health equity issues and create stronger communities here in Detroit before they even graduate.”  

Studies have documented disparities in disease occurrence and health outcomes among nonwhite and economically disadvantaged populations, including higher death rates from cardiovascular disease and greater incidence of diabetes, asthma and obesity. These disparities are often acute in urban areas, and Detroit is no exception. Wayne State University has been working to address these disparities through its research and community engagement for many years. Researchers such as Dr. Sylvie Naar­King, Dr. Phillip Levy and Dr. Julie Gleason Comstock have focused much of their work on addressing behavior change, illness management, better patient screening and hospital discharge. The university’s most recent investment in addressing health disparities in Detroit is the new Integrative Biosciences Center (IBio). The $93 million facility, located in Midtown on a previously abandoned 2.7­acre city block, is Wayne State’s largest construction project to date. The building includes laboratories, faculty offices, common areas, a clinical research center, Henry Ford Health System’s bone and joint research program and biomechanics motion laboratory, and the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors. The university estimates that IBio will bring in nearly $40 million of new earnings annually in Michigan, 98 percent of which will be in metropolitan Detroit. “Rarely does a university get to live its vision and mission on a scale of this magnitude,” said Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson. “The Integrative Biosciences Center embodies what it means to be a public, urban research university — creating and sharing knowledge that contributes immensely to improving the quality of life for its surrounding community. Research conducted in this center will also have important applications in other urban communities around the world.”  

Infant mortality among African Americans in Wayne County is three times higher than that among their white neighbors, according to data released Tuesday at the inaugural Mayor’s Summit on Health Equity in Detroit. Led by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggen and Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson, the summit focused on how social inequities such as poverty, crime and blight affect the health of Detroit residents and how best to improve public health. “There is a tie between health and revitalization of any city,” Wilson told the gathering of about 100 that included researchers, public health workers, foundations and community groups. “Together ... we want to come away with something that’s tangible, and we can build on. This is about coming up with action plans.” A new report, called “A Data Snapshot on Health in Detroit 2016,” was unveiled at the summit and includes data on preterm births, diet and exercise, lead exposure and other health issues. The event brought federal and state officials, community leaders and health advocates together with Detroit public health officials and Wayne State University researchers to brainstorm ways to improve the health of Detroit residents.        

There have long been disparities when it comes to life expectancy, infant mortality, and other health indicators between racial and ethnic groups in America. Despite recent improvements, those disparities persist. That’s according to a recent study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While White Americans’ life expectancy today is age 79, African-Americans on average live 75.6 years. The city of Detroit and Wayne State University are partnering to hold an invite-only summit on health equity. Mayor Mike Duggan and Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson will lead discussions on how to address the city’s health disparities. Wilson says Detroit faces major hurtles with infant mortality, and other childhood health concerns such as asthma. “Unfortunately, Detroit is among the worst” of major U.S. cities with health issues,” says Wilson. And he says it’s important for the city to address those disparities as it rebuilds. “There’s a tie-in between the health of a city and the revitalization of a city,” he says.     Other media mentionshttp://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2980&DateTime=5%2F2%2F2016+12%3A23%3A50+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2980&playclip=True&RefPage=