CHPR faculty members and staff contribute to new federally funded programs to support future pandemic preparedness and digital health equity
March 2022
A new federal spending law allocates $2.7 million for two UC Davis projects: $1 million for future pandemic preparedness and $1.7 million for digital health equity.
Future Pandemic Preparedness
The UC Davis Office of Grand Challenges will launch the Future Pandemic Prevention and Rapid Response Institute, which seeks to anticipate, prevent, identify and respond to emerging diseases and pandemic threats. It will assess gaps in U.S. capacity to prepare for and respond to emerging diseases and pandemic threats, provide training to the next generation of pandemic specialists, streamline public access to research, create guidelines to quickly enable pathogen studies and diagnostic surge capacity, and quicken the development of new treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tests.
Foundational steps to establishing the institute include a multiday Pandemic Preparedness Workshop co-hosted by Healthy Davis Together and the Office of Grand Challenges. Representatives from academia, government and the private sector across the U.S. will chart a public health response roadmap to future pandemics. CHPR staff, led by Dominique Ritley, CHPR senior health policy analyst, will support workshop sessions and a draft policy brief for local, state and national governments, illustrating the benefits of incorporating universities into disaster preparedness planning. Additionally, the workshop results will serve as a foundation on which university-specific preparedness and response plans can be further developed. Universities played a powerful role in the U.S. pandemic response; this workshop is the institute’s first step toward achieving an efficient and effective collective response among traditionally siloed sectors of critical responding institutions in public health planning.
Digital Health Equity
CHPR faculty member and medical director of Express Care at UC Davis Health, Joshua Elder, won $1.7 million in funding for UC Davis Health’s Digital Health Equity Program to help establish a regional digital public health platform in the Sacramento area and northern California region. Along with support from 16 regional stakeholders, Elder seeks to improve access to and continuity of care for vulnerable populations through this project. The project expands UC Davis Health’s ability to partner and coordinate with federally qualified health centers to provide more services and simplify access to health care.
“This much needed project will address some of the most pressing challenges around digital health equity, access to care and population health,” said Elder. “This program will prioritize the importance of having equal access to quality health care for all individuals on a national level.”
Learn more from UC Davis Health: “$2.7 Million for Digital Health Equity and Pandemic Preparedness.”