Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi State University is joining with a major national institute to promote research that can improve the health of children around the nation.
The Center for Child Health Research, an independent affiliate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, announced today [March 7] that it is joining with the university's Social Science Research Center to conduct studies of critical issues facing children and their families.
Additionally, the two institutions will take steps to develop links between ongoing research and public policy and to provide a bridge between health-care professionals and a wide variety of academic disciplines.
The new Collaborating Centers for Child and Family Health Research will involve research scientists, physicians and others with an expertise in child health issues and social science research.
Linda H. Southward, coordinator of the SSRC's Family and Children Research Unit, will lead the MSU effort and serve as liaison to the Center for Child Health Research. A former social work practitioner and educator, she was among 50 participants in the 1999 national Rochester Child Health Congress Leadership and Advocacy Program.
"The collaborating centers' agreement offers tremendous benefits for all involved," Southward said. "This unprecedented opportunity to promote children's health and well-being in Mississippi and the rest of the nation brings together some of the pre-eminent researchers in the field to determine the most important research questions affecting children's health."
The Center for Child Health Research was created in 1999 by the 55,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics. An independent entity, it is based at the University of Rochester and collaborates with institutions and researchers nationwide.
AAP is the world's largest organization of medical specialists in child health. Its Pediatric Research in Office Setting program--PROS, for short--operates America's largest clinical research laboratory, some 1,500 practitioners recording data as they provide care to more than five million children.
MSU's Social Science Research Center, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, conducts basic and applied research encompassing social and economic development, families and children, alcohol safety, substance abuse, and a range of other related issues.
"Integrating the skills and resources of these two organizations creates the potential to do a great deal of good for children throughout the United States," said Dr. Robert Greenberg, chairman of the child health research center's board of directors.
An immediate impact will be the expansion of the PROS network to include more children and medical providers from rural areas and the South, Greenberg said.
SSRC director Arthur G. Cosby said the new alliance would address issues with special relevance of one kind or another in every region of the country.
"While some of the initial projects will focus upon the health of Mississippi's children, we also will develop studies that are national in scope and substantially contribute to improved health of children throughout the country," Cosby said.
As the collaboration effort grows, the MSU administrator said researchers will focus on the use of information technology to improve medical access. Also planned are periodic surveys of the changing health-care needs of American children and a linkage with similar national networks to design better health-related research programs.
Dr. Michael Weitzman, CCHR executive director, said this joint effort "reflects the social science expertise of Mississippi State being wedded to pediatricians and pediatric insights in collaborative research projects."
"The problems that compromise the health and well-being of our nation's children are too complex to be met by any one discipline," Weitzman said. "Meaningful research requires collaboration across disciplines.
"The Center for Child Health Research is eager to form this partnership with a group with the capabilities and accomplishments of the SSRC, so we can better answer questions that will benefit children everywhere," he added.