The Department of Family and 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.
The RUSH Center for Urban Health Equity
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.
Section of Community Health
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.
Section of Clinical Preventive Medicine
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.
Section of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
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:
- Biostatistics: This group uses contemporary statistical methodology to facilitate the development of new research protocols as well as the analysis of existing projects.
- Epidemiology: This group specializes in the design and conduct of behavioral randomized clinical trials. A current focus of research is women's health, with emphases on the menopausal transition, psychosocial influences on early changes in cardiovascular risk and decline in cognitive function as women age.
- The Data Management Center (DMC): The DMC provides data management services to the Department of Preventive Medicine. DMC staff members have considerable experience with the acquisition, maintenance and analysis of data with respect to randomized clinical trials, cohort studies and multisite studies. The DMC specializes in designing and implementing multiplatform data capture systems and providing data coordination for multicenter clinical trials.