The Department of Family & Preventive Medicine includes four sections with a preventive medicine focus and a mission to translate findings from basic, clinical and population-based research into practice.
Established through a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Rush Center for Urban Health Equity brings together health professionals, researchers, community members and the greater public to reduce health inequities with respect to cardiopulmonary diseases.
The Section of Community Health seeks to develop and evaluate interventions to reduce the chronic disease burden borne by minority communities and the medically underserved. Chronic disease targets are those that are prevalent in disadvantaged populations, including diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and depression.
The Section of Clinical Preventive Medicine aims to integrate disease prevention and health promotion for chronic disease into the course of daily clinical practice, integrating best practices in behavioral research and practice. A prime example is the Rush University Prevention Center, which specializes in integrated and personalized treatment of hypertension, lipid disorders, prediabetes/diabetes and obesity.
The Section of Biostatistics and Epidemiology provides analytics, statistical and data management support to clinical projects conducted by investigators within the Department of Preventive Medicine and other groups across Rush. Particular emphasis is placed on the development and practical use of methods for the effective design and analysis of clinical trials involving behavioral interventions. The Section is comprised of three groups: