Areas of Focus

The activities of the proposed PROGRESS initiative cover several topical areas of focus, with a lead representative from the Department of Epidemiology (this list is not meant to be exhaustive but rather highlights the key strengths of members of the department):

  1. Menstrual Health (lead: Wesselink)
  2. Sexual Health (lead: Bond)
  3. Gynecologic Health (lead: Wise)
  4. Fertility (lead: Wise)
  5. Miscarriage (lead: Aschengrau)
  6. Congenital Anomalies (lead: Werler)
  7. PROGRESS outcomes among individuals living with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (lead: Rubenstein)
  8. Pregnancy-Related Morbidity and Mortality (leads: Parker and Ncube)
  9. Environmental Influences on PROGRESS-related outcomes (leads: Willis and Aschengrau)
  10.  Methodologic Approaches for Study of PROGRESS outcomes (lead: Fox)
  11. Community Engagement, with “community” defined as those most likely to be affected by the conditions under study (lead: Cozier)

These focus areas represent a subset of areas in which the BUSPH epidemiology department already has substantial expertise and a track record of success. For example, Drs. Wesselink, Wise, Aschengrau, Willis, and Ncube have several publications in the areas of menstrual and gynecologic health, fertility, and miscarriage, and Drs. Cozier, Wesselink, Willis, and Aschengrau are currently engaging in several community-engaged activities (e.g., report-back methods of environmental contaminants to participants). Opportunities to conduct substudy add-ons with departmental data sources (e.g., PRESTO) would be considered via an application process.

All faculty are familiar with federal grant mechanisms (e.g., NIH, NSF) and foundations (Hood, Gates, Thrasher) and have worked closely with grants management staff to submit grant applications on a regular basis.