Institutes, Centers, and Special Programs

The School is home to numerous research and educational institutes, many involving interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues throughout GW, and at many other institutions in the region. Among their wide-ranging areas of focus: risk assessment; disease prevention; health communications; statistical analyses; community and environmental health; policymaking; health law; nutrition and exercise; school-based health; long-term care; global health; safety nets; health disparities; HIV; and alcohol use

Read further to discover how our institutes, centers, and special programs are moving the field forward.

• Biostatistics Center
  As the statistical coordinating center for large-scale, multicenter clinical trials and epidemiological studies, BSC ensures that study results are of the highest scientific integrity and meet rigorous biostatistical standards.
• Biostatistics Center Medical Center Unit
  BCMCU provides high-quality statistical support - including data management, biostatistical and clinical epidemiological expertise and grant development - to all GW Medical Center faculty members.
• Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
  This resource center supports the development of school-based health programs across the nation and leads a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national initiative to expand school mental health and dental services.
• Center for Health Services Research and Policy
  Through research and policy activities, the Center informs debate, advances the policymaking process and helps develop practical solutions to improve access to quality health care.
• Center for Risk Science and Public Health
  With its expertise in risk assessment methodology and risk communication, the Center applies a rigorous, scientific, public health-based approach to the analysis of environmental and occupational health hazards.
• Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems
  This Pew Charitable Trusts initiative provides research-based information on effective alcohol treatment and the barriers to obtaining it, and engages in an array of outreach and communications efforts.
• Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care
  The Department serves as the national program office of this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative, which works to improve the quality of care provided to African-Americans and Latinos, especially in the area of cardiovascular disease.
• Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
  This public-private partnership facilitates discussion on emerging issues in HIV clinical research and translates research results into patient care.
• Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy
  Through education, research and training in community health practice, this initiative safeguards and advances strong community health programs.
• GW Center for Global Health
  A portal for global health activities across the university, the Center's multidisciplinary approach strengthens linkages between population health and social and economic development.
• GW Yes Center
  This Center provides technical assistance, training, guidance and evaluative services to eight demonstration sites around the country working with young men of color who have sex with men. Faculty from the Departments of Health Policy and Epidemiology and Biostatistics collaborate on this project.
• Health Information Technology Adoption Initiative
  The new initiative is aimed at better characterizing and measuring the state of EHR adoption and determining the effectiveness of policies aimed at accelerating adoption of EHRs and interoperability.
• Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program
  This interdisciplinary educational program focuses on how the law influences all aspects of health care and policy, and how the health care system affects traditional areas of law.
• Hirsh Program in Medicine and Health Policy
  Developed in collaboration with GW's School of Medicine and Health Sciences, this program trains health professions students and working health care providers in health policy.
• HIV/AIDS Institute
  The GWU HIV/AIDS Institute was developed by GWU faculty involved in HIV/AIDS educational, research, prevention and care activities at five sister institutions – the School of Public Health and Health Services, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Children's National Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center – Washington DC.
• ISCOPES
  Interdisciplinary Student Community-Oriented Prevention Enhancement Service (ISCOPES) combines service and learning, allowing students to gain community health experience while addressing the health needs of underserved populations.
• Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
  The Jacobs Institute of Women's Health (JIWH) was founded in 1990 and became part of the SPHHS in 2006. The goal of JIWH is to improve health care for women through research, dialogue, and information dissemination.
• Legal Barriers to Health Information
  The Health Law Information Project is a special initiative whose mission is to examine and report on the interaction between the law and health information in a changing health care system.
• Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment
  MACCHE provides education and outreach to health professionals, parents and the community in order to address environmental risks to children.
• Prevention Research Center
  The scholarly home for many Department research activities, PRC develops and evaluates innovative theoretical models and action strategies to promote health and prevent disease.
• Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy
  SKAPP engages scholars and scientists in the study of scientific evidence and its application to law and regulation in order to inform decisions and protect the public health.
• Speaking Together: National Language Services Network
  The Department serves as the national program office of this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative, which works to integrate quality improvement with language services, and brings together hospitals to pilot new performance measures and test valuable techniques for reducing health care disparities associated with language barriers.
• Urgent Matters
  The Department serves as the national program office of this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative, which helps hospitals to eliminate crowding in the emergency department and to identify gaps in community safety nets.
• WellFit
  WellFit's educational programs are open to the DC community and are designed to enhance well-being by emphasizing nutrition, stress management, behavior modification and exercise.
• Wertlieb Educational Institute for Long-Term Care Management
  A national resource for interdisciplinary education, dialogue and research in long-term care management, the Institute prepares strong leaders to provide quality care and promotes best practices.