Jim Crow, a pioneer and legend in the field of population genetics, and an influential and widely loved faculty member here at the University of Wisconsin, died last week at the age of 95. John Hawkes has a fantastic profile of him here, while his faculty page at the UW Laboratory of Genetics faculty testifies to his seemingly [...]
About David
CDC releases National Asthma Control Program state profiles
CDC has set up a new page collecting short (two-page) burden of disease profiles from the 36 National Asthma Control Program grantee states across the US. These summaries highlight key statistical data, such as prevalence and health care use in adults and children, as well as data on patient education and medication use from the [...]
Parents misperceive asthma control in kids
The rise of asthma control and impairment as the main indicators of management has renewed interest in a longstanding challenge: Variability in the perception and experience of asthma symptoms. Parents and children have been shown to differ in their assessments of the existence of asthma, let alone the presence or severity of specific symptoms. And [...]
GE Healthymagination profile of Asthmapolis
The GE Healthymagination blog has an article up today about Asthmapolis that features photos of our new sensor. While you’re there, be sure to check out their great visualization projects (like the Breast Cancer Conversation) and read and recommend some of the entries submitted to their $100m challenge targeting innovation in breast cancer.
Q&A with The Commonwealth Fund
I recently spoke with Sarah Klein from The Commonwealth Fund, one of the leading private foundations focused on healthcare research and quality. Our Q&A – about Asthmapolis and the potential of mobile technology to improve the quality of care and public health – is published in their Quality Matters newsletter this month. Read more » [...]
Global Asthma Report 2011
Worldwide, 235 million people have asthma. Although effective treatment is available, many people with asthma, especially in low- and middle-income countries, are unable to access or afford it. A new report, and accompanying website, released today by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in [...]
Race, socioeconomic status and lung function
For the last two years, John Mullahy and Sheryl Magzamen and I have been working on an analysis of the apparent racial differences in normal lung function and the contribution of socioeconomic status to those patterns. Our goal was to investigate whether alternative statistical methods (quantile regression) might better illustrate the effects of educational achievement [...]
Disease labels in national surveys – the case of COPD
The new CDC Framework for COPD Prevention, much better thought of as a well developed agenda for applied public health, estimates that half of the people with COPD in the US have not been diagnosed. The report – developed by a group of experts during a workshop in 2010 – proposes first among its four [...]
Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) competition closes
Having been a judge in this competition for the past few years, and a believer in the value of epidemiology as an important and underused discipline in education, I’m disappointed to see this program, funded by RWJF and run by the College Board, come to an end. For a great perspective on it’s potential – [...]
AAAS session on anthropology and global health
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to speak at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Washington DC. I was part of a panel on anthropology and public health organized by anthropologist Cynthia Beall from Case Western Reserve University. Kathleen Barnes (Johns Hopkins) presented research examining how allergic asthma [...]
About
Medical anthropologist, asthma epidemiologist in Madison, WI. Co-Founder of Reciprocal Labs and Asthmapolis.
