Public Health

Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice said annual spending on shelters for people experiencing homelessness has reached $12 billion.

Jennifer Prah Ruger of the School of Social Policy & Practice wrote about the continued relevance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cynthia Otto of the School of Veterinary Medicine spoke about the Working Dog Center’s efforts to train dogs to detect COVID-19 in humans. “Basically, we are looking at urine samples. We are hoping to look at saliva and breath samples as well,” she said. “We are going to tell basically if there is an odor excreted in these samples.”

Catherine McDonald of the School of Nursing spoke about how to teach teens to not use cell phones while driving. “Education, policy, and enforcement are [all] key. Parents need to model safe driving behavior, including no cellphone use while driving, well before their teen reaches driving age,” she said.

Eve Higginbotham of the Perelman School of Medicine said more research is needed to determine why Philadelphia’s minority populations saw a spike in the rate of deaths due to overdose in 2019. However, she said, structural inequality clearly contributes to worse health outcomes in communities of color.

Jennifer Prah Ruger of the School of Social Policy & Practice wrote about how the World Health Organization can be improved, rather than disbanded altogether. “The world needs such a WHO, that puts science before politics,” she argued. “Our lives literally depend on it.”

The Leonard Davis Institute’s Charlene Lai of CHOP and Terri Lipman of the School of Nursing wrote about how community health workers can support the families of children with Type 1 diabetes. These health workers “are helping families to connect with their health care teams through technology, applying for economic relief, finding local food pantries, strategizing childcare, and providing a virtual shoulder to lean on during these difficult times,” they said.