This Month at LDI

News and Announcements
Flaura Winston tackles dangers of teen driving. You might have seen LDI Senior Fellow Flaura Winston, MD, PhD, on Good Morning America, at the National Press Club, and innumerable other news outlets, discussing the dangers of distractions for teen drivers. She and colleagues at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), in conjunction with State Farm Insurance, released the first national survey of teen drivers. More than 5,600 high school students said they are driving under extremely dangerous conditions, including fatigue, talking on cell phones, strong emotions, and multiple passengers, and many are still not wearing seatbelts. The National Teen Driver Survey is the first phase of a multidisciplinary initiative of research, education and programs that can be implemented nationally to save lives.
http://www.gh-ipr.com/statefarm/chop/youngdriversurvey/index.htm

Program Directors honor Jack Ende with educator award. Congratulations to LDI Senior Fellow Jack Ende, MD, who will receive the 2007 Dema Daley Founders Award from the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM). The award honors a member of the internal medicine community recognized nationally as an educator, innovator, and leader. Dr. Ende is Chief of Medicine at Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia.
http://www.im.org/APDIM/Membership/Awards/2007APDIMFoundersAward.htm

Upcoming Seminars
Research
What effect do hospital closures have on social welfare and the local economy? Please join us as Richard Lindrooth, PhD, Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, presents a new framework for answering this question in his talk, "Hospital Closure and Economic Efficiency" on Friday, February 2, 2007, from 12:00-1:30 pm.
RSVP More info

Health Policy (This year's theme is Global Health, a.k.a. It's a small, small world)
We are delighted to welcome Eric Whitaker, MD, MPH, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, who will discuss, "The Threat to Global Health: HIV on the African Continent" on Friday, February 23, 2007 from 12:00-1:30 pm.
RSVP More info

Issue Brief
Flu-Related Hospitalizations in Children
by Ron Keren, MD, MPH, Susan E. Coffin, MD, MPH, and Theoklis E. Zaouitis, MD, MSCE

Recent Seminars
Research: On January 12, LDI Senior Fellows Charles Branas, PhD and Dennis Culhane, PhD discussed the research potential of the Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) at Penn.

On January 26, Somnath Saha, MD, MPH, Staff Physician at the Portland VA Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, presented a series of studies on the influence of race and ethnicity on the physician-patient relationship.
Abstract from January 26 talk

Health Policy: On January 19, Marko Vujicic, PhD, an economist and consultant with the World Bank, discussed the complex issue of the global health workforce and its international implications.
Slides from January 19 talk

Welcome New LDI Senior Fellows
Nancy P. Hanrahan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Nursing

Vida Maralani, PhD
Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar

Xiaoxian Meng, DDS, MPH, PhD
Instructor, Dean's Office (Lab), School of Dental Medicine

Elizabeth Wildsmith, PhD
Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar

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