The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) at the Medical College of Wisconsin will award more than $3.1 million to five community health initiatives and six health research projects aimed at improving health for residents statewide, including two programs targeting oral health.
“From cells to society, the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment is working to propel promising work and ideas that support a healthier Wisconsin today and for generations to come,” said Cheryl A. Maurana, PhD, AHW founding director. “Through these awards, we are excited to advance research that can improve lives and help partners create real, positive change in communities statewide.”
The Wisconsin Medical Dental Integration Project will receive a $528,610 award, enabling the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin and its partners to develop protocols to integrate dental hygienists into at least 15 primary care medical clinics and health systems to improve access to dental health services and reduce the impact and incidence of dental disease on overall health outcomes. Target populations will include children age five and under and pregnant women.
Also, “Determining the Phenotype of Airway Collapse in Obstructive Sleep Apnea” will receive a $200,000 award. Led by Guilherme Garcia, PhD, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin, researchers will develop methods to detect the most common contributor to obstructive sleep apnea to drive better diagnosis and treatment identification for patients.
“We congratulate these research partners and community coalitions on their exciting proposals and look forward to working with them to develop new knowledge and build systems that can make good health possible,” said Maurana.
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