News

The Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT) has begun two new projects in recent months.

Innovations in infectious disease control 

CHRT will synthesize lessons from Pfizer’s Direct Relief Innovation Awards in Community Health. Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization focused on improving the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies, gave these awards to Federally-Qualified Health Centers and other clinics to help address infectious disease in underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Two members of the CHRT team will attend a two-day learning summit to hear from Direct Relief awardees about their projects, the challenges they sought to address, and what they learned and achieved along the way. Topics will include strategies to prevent and treat infectious diseases, such as mobile vaccine clinics and offering flu vaccine uptake and PrEP at primary care visits. 

CHRT will conduct a thematic analysis of the information gathered at the summit and synthesize results. CHRT will then share learnings and themes from the summit, such as common challenges, successes, and strategies shared by the awardees. 

CHRT’s analysis will be distributed to Direct Relief’s partner network of over 1,500 Federally Qualified Health Centers, community health centers, free and charitable safety net clinics, as well as the National Association of Community Health Centers and the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics. 

Backbone support for the Washtenaw County opioid summit

For the last 13 years, CHRT has provided backbone support to the Washtenaw Health Initiative (WHI) Opioid Project. This has included helping project members organize an annual opioid summit designed to address the root causes of opioid overdose in the county. The 2022 opioid summit brought together 141 participants from over 60 organizations across Michigan to remember those lost and celebrate hope and recovery. In 2020, an online opioid summit drew 175 participants from over 65 organizations to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Washtenaw’s treatment and recovery system.

In 2023, the WHI Opioid Project and the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project (WRAP), a program of Home of New Vision, will organize the summit together. CHRT will facilitate a committee to define the audience, objectives, and content of the summit, to contact presenters, and to develop and execute a promotional plan. CHRT will also prepare the technological resources and provide technical operations for the hybrid summit in September. After the summit, CHRT will conduct a post-summit participant survey and analyze results. CHRT will also arrange continuing education credit opportunities for participants.