Public Health Practice – The Center for Collaboration on Research Design and Analysis (CCORDA) seeks to advance clinical, basic, and translational research and public health research at UNMC and in the community and region.

CCORDA is available to provide expertise in the quantitative sciences, including biostatistics, epidemiology, and health services research, and to coordinate the collaborative design, planning, conduct, analysis and interpretation of laboratory, clinical, and public health research studies. In addition, the center will provide educational training opportunities for quantitative sciences graduate students and educational opportunities for public health, clinical, and translational investigators.

Example projects include the following:

One recent project involved assessing health literacy in Spanish-speaking Hispanic adults who accessed health care services in rural (n = 199) and urban (n = 202) community health clinics in Nebraska. Survey data was collected that included a health literacy instrument, information about how these populations obtained health information for disease prevention, and questions related to perceived discrimination and overall health. Data analysis consisted of comparing the survey responses from the two settings. Project investigators included Dr. Patrik Johansson, Dr. Denise Britigan, Dr. Armando DeAlba, Elizabeth Lyden, and Melissa Leon.

Robin High is working with Dr. Katherine Jones in the School of Allied Health with CAPTURE–Collaboration And Proactive Teamwork Used to REduce–Falls. The staff associated with this project is partnering with 19 Nebraska hospitals to develop a customized action plan to improve the structure and process of fall risk reduction. This work is supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. http://www.unmc.edu/patient-safety/capture_falls.htm

This article was written by Lynette Smith, MS, statistical coordinator in the UNMC COPH Department of Biostatistics and associate director of CCORDA.