Lourdes Center for Public Health
Lourdes Health System, serving Camden, Trenton and Newark
900 Haddon Avenue, Suite 318
Collingswood, NJ 08108
Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center
1600 Haddon Avenue
Camden, NJ 08103-3117
Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County
218 Sunset Road
Willingboro, NJ 08046
Telephone: (856) 869-3038 or (856) 869-3039
Contact:
Stanton B. Miller, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Lourdes Health System
Director, Lourdes Center for Public Health
E-mail: millers@lourdesnet.org
Victoria Santana, Coordinator – Special Projects
Email: santanav@lourdesnet.org
Jessica Kim, Haverford House Fellow, Coordinator
Email: kimj@lourdesnet.org
Website: http://www.lourdesnet.org/services/pub-health.php
Jump to: |
 Population Research |
Organization Description and Mission
Recognizing the important role that public health and population-based methodologies can play in effective health promotion and disease prevention, the Lourdes Center for Public Health was established in 2006 to engage students in public health studies and activities in the communities served by Lourdes Health System’s New Jersey hospitals in Camden and Burlington counties.
The Lourdes Center for Public Health works collaboratively with academic and community partners to identify critical public health challenges, design and implement research, and develop intervention strategies for urban and vulnerable populations.
The Center provides mentorship to students from a variety of academic institutions including both undergraduate and graduate programs. Over the past three years in conjunction with academic curricula and advising, students have completed more than twenty projects, which have ranged from community based needs assessments to providing homeless medical outreach to studying disparities in food access in Camden and its impact on health.
The Center’s objective is to utilize results and recommendations from student research to affect change in the Lourdes Health System and its care-delivery system. Student research outcomes confer immediate benefits to communities and help to reduce health care disparities, while providing students with the opportunity to gain valuable experience in public health research and health-care settings.
The Lourdes Health System is a preeminent regional health system known for providing the most sophisticated levels of care. For over five decades, Lourdes has been committed to enhancing the health and well being of southern New Jersey residents and particularly devoted to caring for those most in need. The health system is a Catholic health system sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, NY, who came to Camden in 1950 to open Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center which would be a transforming and healing presence in the community. Today, the Lourdes Health System has grown to a two hospital system, Our Lady of Lourdes in Camden, and the Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County.
The Lourdes Health System is "dedicated to its tradition of serving all with reverence, compassion and integrity in a simple, joyful and hospitable manner."
We strive for excellence in our stewardship to our patients, their families, the community and each other by promoting a culture that embraces diversity.
We commit to being a transforming, healing presence within the diverse communities in which we live and serve.
We create collaborative, inclusive, caring communities who provide a full range of quality medical and wholistic health services.
We promote healthy communities and assure access to all, especially those most in need.”
The Lourdes Health System is a member of Catholic Health East (www.che.org), a multi-institutional, Catholic health system co-sponsored by 13 religious congregations and consisting of 33 acute care hospitals along the East Coast. Lourdes has become a statewide health system offering services throughout New Jersey.
Clinical Centers of Excellence at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center and Lourdes Medical Center Burlington County include: Bariatric Surgery, Cardiac Services, Dialysis, Organ Transplantation, Rehabilitation Center, Women and Children's Services, Cancer Care and Behavioral Health Services. Other services include Acute Pain Management, Community Outreach, Emergency Services, Joint Replacement Center, a top-rated School of Nursing, Nursing Research Council, and Nurse Anesthesia Program. Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County also sponsors many services for the United States military at nearby Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base.
Community
and Population Served by the Organization
The Lourdes Health System and Catholic Health East – New Jersey are dedicated to serving the underserved, the uninsured, and the disadvantaged in the New Jersey area, including Camden, Trenton, and Newark. They do not deny care for any person who arrives at their hospital. Urban health is a major focus of research.
The majority of research opportunities are available in the Lourdes Health System hospitals in Camden, NJ and Willingboro, NJ. Projects may also be arranged on a case-by-case basis with other Catholic Health East-New Jersey hospitals in Trenton, NJ and Newark, NJ or with the Mercy Philadelphia Hospital in West Philadelphia, PA. Please email Lourdes Center for Public Health at lcph@lourdesnet.org if you are interested in pursuing a project at one of these other sites.
CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT, HEALTH DISPARITIES, URBAN VULNERABLE POPULATION
Participate in Camden City-wide Diabetes Collaborative in conjunction with Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as funded by the Merck Foundation. This Collaborative seeks to address the overutilization of Emergency Rooms in Camden by building primary care infrastructure, educating patients in diabetes self-management, and creating medical homes for the more than 6000 diabetics in Camden City, NJ.
HEALTH DISPARITIES, EPIDEMIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Help formulate a plan for Hepatitis B Screening , Education and Vaccination in the Vietnamese and other Asian communities in Southern New Jersey. Through collaboration with the National Hepatitis B Foundation, a Patient Educator from Bristol Myers Squib, and the Boat People SOS, a Vietnamese advocacy group, the student will organize screening events and education programs to the Asian communities. This initiative aims to improve knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B and liver cancer among high risk groups to ultimately eliminate the health disparities associated with the disease.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY, BARRIERS TO CARE, ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION, CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT
Conduct surveys in the South Jersey Regional Dialysis Center to evaluate patient attitudes towards and other barriers to organ transplantation, with particular emphasis on socioeconomic, religious, cultural and education influences against organ transplantation. These four-page length surveys will be administered orally to patients with end-stage renal disease during dialysis. The project aims to identify barriers to transplantation in dialysis patients and areas for greater patient education and outreach. The student will have the opportunity for direct interaction with patients and to assess the Osborn Clinic’s protocol for informing patients about the available options for organ transplantation.
HOLISTIC INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
(ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE)
Conduct a study to demonstrate the efficacy of the Prepare for Surgery Program, a free two-hour program taught by a holistic nurse to educate surgery patients on mind-body relaxation techniques to help patients prepare for and recover from surgery better. This initiative seeks to establish the efficacy of holistic techniques in improving surgical outcomes and overall patient well-being. The student will also have the opportunity to design a survey that measures patient anxiety levels pre- and post-operation and overall satisfaction with the quality of care.
MATERNAL HEALTH, HEALTH DISPARITIES, ACCESS TO CARE
Follow-up with a study on the availability of obstetric specialists for the under- and un-insured gestational population at the Lourdes Medical Center Burlington County Maternity Health Clinic. With demographic data obtained from previous work, the student will have the opportunity to analyze potential barriers (e.g. transportation, cost, insurance, citizenship status) to obtaining specialty care as well as possible solutions to these barriers. Additionally, the student will follow-up with patients in the patient database to determine the percentage of patients unable to receive care from a specialist even with referrals.
HEALTH ECONOMICS, CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT, ACCESS TO CARE
Conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of Community Health Practice (CHP), a non-profit volunteer healthcare clinic of Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center housed in the Bergen Lanning Health Center in Camden, New Jersey. Community Health Practice provides free primary and specialty care to the uninsured, keeping these patients out of the Emergency Department for unnecessary visits at a tremendous savings to the hospital. The challenge will be to determine how much money has been saved in reducing unnecessary care, by doing comparative analysis for care received.
MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE, CANCER
Some diagnoses put patients at greater risk for suicide than others, like cancer, although this risk is often not discussed. There are two parts to this project:
1. To perform a retrospective analysis chart review on patients with higher-risk for suicide based on their diagnosis to determine the relative referral rates for psychological services and suicide attempts/suicides in this population to evaluate hospital staff’s response to patients at increased risk for suicide.
2. After compiling the records of patients with at-risk diagnosis, student will compile data on frequency of various symptoms of suicidal ideation or risk to determine if there are certain patterns of behavior or symptoms associated with different diseases.
Through both studies, greater understanding will be achieved regarding patients at risk for suicide. Student will be able to make recommendations to hospital staff for creating or revising existing hospital protocol regarding referrals of patients with certain diagnoses to psychological services based on these risk factors, as well as staff and patient education on risk factors for suicide.
TELEMEDICINE, CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT
Design an initiative to implement a web-based diabetes monitoring system for a specific group of diabetic patients in the urban environment of Camden, NJ. The student will assist in conducting pre and post surveys of the patients and health care provider staff regarding the impact of the MyCareTeam Program, an online software program that allows diabetic patients to upload glucose readings via internet or mobile phones. The project seeks to determine if telemedicine can help improve diabetes management among the urban poor, with the goal of improving the overall health of the patient and reducing unnecessary health costs and Emergency Department visits.
HEALTH DISPARITIES, ACCESS TO CARE, CULTURAL COMPETENCY
Conduct a community health needs assessment of vulnerable communities in West Philadelphia. Based at the Mercy Philadelphia Hospital, the student will engage with the significant ethnic groups in the community including West African, Haitian and Asian communities and work with local churches, community organizations, and local leaders to determine the greatest health needs of the communities served by the Mercy Philadelphia Hospital. By collecting primary health data in the form of focused surveys, this work will ultimately be used to implement policy decisions and hospital-based programs that will ultimately help Mercy Philadelphia Hospital understand and serve its communities better.
CANCER PREVENTION, HEALTH DISPARITIES, ACCESS TO CARE
Design an initiative to increase participation for the In the Pink Program, which seeks to increase the proportion of men and women screened for breast, cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancer. The program provides free screening and follow-up services for uninsured or under-insured men and women. This initiative will be conducted for the Connie Dwyer Breast Center – an affiliate of St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, NJ. A particular focus for this initiative may be to improve awareness among the African American and Latino population as these particular groups have been identified as particularly vulnerable.
RESEARCH OPTIONS
The research options available with the Lourdes Center for Public Health include much more than listed in the brief project list above. If you have an interest in urban public health and vulnerable populations, urban health policy, health economics, bioethics, spirituality and health care, integrative or complementary and alternative medicine, art or music therapy, or anything you think would be relevant to this organization, please feel free to contact Lourdes Center for Public Health with your ideas. We look forward to hearing them! Princeton students interested in CBLI coursework with this organization should contact Princeton's Community-based Learning Initiative Office.
Continue searching profiles by area of interest.
Continue searching profiles by geographic
location.
