This Month at LDI

News and Announcements
LDI unveils new Health Services Research Data Center (HSRDC). The HSRDC is designed to address the growing data acquisition, storage, and processing needs of Penn's health services researchers. It is collaboratively produced and maintained by LDI and the Biomedical Informatics Core Facility (BMIF). The Data Center facilitates the acquisition, use, and sharing of data; provides universally secure storage; and offers guidance and some technical assistance to investigators working with large administrative data files. The HSDRC web page is under construction at http://bmif.upenn.edu/ldi - public data files are now available for download!

Esquire honors Dennis Culhane. Kudos to LDI Senior Fellow Dennis Culhane for being named one of the year's "Best & Brightest in 2005" by Esquire Magazine. Dr. Culhane, Professor in the School of Social Practice and Policy, was honored for his groundbreaking work on urban homelessness.
http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v52/n15/hot.html

Summer internship available for undergraduate minorities. For the seventh consecutive year, LDI and the Wharton Health Care Systems Department are conducting a paid internship program for undergraduates (rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors) from underrepresented minority groups and interested others. The Summer Undergraduate Minority Research (SUMR) program provides students with an opportunity to conduct health services research under the guidance of an LDI Senior Fellow, attend national conferences and network with researchers, and gain practical advice about graduate school opportunities. The brief online application form must be completed by February 15, 2006. For more information contact Joanne Levy.

Upcoming Seminars
Health Policy: We are pleased to cosponsor, with the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research and Penn's Center for AIDS Research, a talk by Ronald D. Stall, PhD, MPH, Professor of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He will deliver the Robert C. Long Memorial Lecture in Mental Health Services Research, entitled, "Health Disparities, Syndemics and Gay Men's Health." Please join us on Friday, January 20, 2006, at 12:00 pm.
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Research: We welcome Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Policy & Management, at Johns Hopkins University. She will present her work on "Racial Disparities in Healthcare: Why Communication Matters" on Friday, February 3, 2006, at 12:00 pm.
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Issue Brief
Understanding and Improving Hospice Enrollment
by David Casarett, MD

Government Relations Update
News about recent federal and state developments, from the University of Pennsylvania Health System's Office of Government Relations
January 6 edition edition

Recent Seminars
Health Policy: On January 13, 2005, the Honorable William Winkenwerder, Jr., MD, MBA, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, presented information on the role of military medicine in providing health care at home and abroad. He gave the annual Charles C. Leighton, MD Memorial Lecture, which honors the memory of Merck's former Senior Vice President for Administration, Planning and Science Policy.
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Executive Education
Applications for J & J Nurse Fellows Program due. January 31, 2006 is the deadline to apply for the Johnson & Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management for Nurse Executives. The program began in 1983 with the goal of providing management education to chief nursing officers in hospitals and health systems. Since then, it has grown into an internationally recognized course for these senior executives. The integrated curriculum is spread across three consecutive weeks and concentrates on finance, accounting, economics, negotiations, simulations, leadership and emotional intelligence. Forty nurse executives are competitively selected to attend the program, and they are required to have their administrative partner, typically the CEO or COO, attend the last 4 days of the program with them. Chief nursing officers who are interested in attending may contact program manager Karen Fiala. Program selections will be announced by March 1, 2006. See our web site for more information.

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