Recent health care reform calls for a greater focus on population health initiatives, and URI is poised to emerge as a national leader in this area.
As sick care is now shifting to health care, the combination of expertise in the Colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health Sciences spans the spectrum—from cells to individuals to populations—and is ideally positioned to respond to the critical needs of health maintenance and disease prevention.
The Institute:
- Prepares our health professional students to work in a collaborative environment. Coordinated care is essential to prevent and manage the complex health needs of individuals and populations. New programs and teaching supports teach students to work in health care teams, and provide them with the advantage of learning how to interact and share knowledge, and learn from one another in the pursuit of enhancing health.
- Encourages cross-disciplinary research to improve health from the bench to the bedside and ultimately to the entire population. The Institute provides resources to support these efforts and serve as a vibrant center for the formation of new ideas and approaches to research, and the dissemination of knowledge.
- Provides an infrastructure to create innovative service and outreach programs and clinics that offer integrated services to the University community and Rhode Island communities at large. These programs provide direct services, opportunities to evaluate new innovations, support for entrepreneurial efforts, and training and research opportunities for our students.
- Partners with the State of Rhode Island to provide support, service, and expertise in the analysis and provision of health in Rhode Island. These partnerships leverage existing State resources to impact the health of our residents most effectively.