Research into Action

Now entering its third year, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter the lives of people everywhere and exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities in income, wealth and access to resources and care. The nation is also grappling with the perpetuation and consequences of hundreds of years of systemic racism.

Severe maternal morbidity (SMM)—defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as unintended outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman’s health—is a major determinant of maternal mortality. Each year 15 of every 1,000 people hospitalized for a delivery experience SMM. In addition to adverse health outcomes, SMM can lead to disruptions in mother-infant bonding, which can compromise children’s social and emotional development, and confers substantial economic costs to families, communities, and insurers including Medicaid.

What could we gain if we committed to increasing diversity in research? P4A National Advisory Committee member Jewel Mullen, the associate dean for health equity at the Dell Medical School of the University of Texas at Austin, helps us explore this question.

Policies for Action grantees recently gathered for an exclusive training on sharing and promoting research, hosted by communications experts at the Urban Institute. That day, we were also joined by a group of seasoned policymakers and staffers for a conversation about elevating evidence to inform policy debates. Here’s what we learned.

Kacie Dragan of our NYU Wagner School Research Hub writes about collaborating with local criminal justice and public health agencies to better understand the health needs of justice-involved New Yorkers.

The recent P4A conference at NYU's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service highlighted the power of partnerships with policymakers and practitioners to make research relevant and actionable.

Sherry Glied writes on the importance of researchers to anticipate the needs of policymakers when designing their research studies to account for the "unpredictable and sometimes messy world of politics."

To advance a Culture of Health in our country, we must engage all sectors to work collaboratively. At the core of this effort should be a commitment to rigorous, engaged research that reflects people’s true conditions and realities, generates quick feedback on what is working and what is not, and feeds into policy and practice to drive continuous real-time improvements. 

Starting this month, nine new P4A research teams will embark on projects to illuminate how policies and laws (at the local, state, and national levels, and in the private sector) can help improve population health, well-being, and equity. With topics including paid family leave laws, substance use interventions, and vaccine exemptions, our newly funded research projects represent truly innovative thinking on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Manmeet Kaur, executive director and founder of the Harlem-based community health organization City Health Works, is the inaugural recipient of the Janice Nittoli Practitioner Fellowship. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Nittoli Fellowship is awarded to innovative, entrepreneurial practitioners working in communities to address inequalities and is open to applications.

Twitter has emerged as a key tool for scientists — and for the journals in which they publish their findings — to share new research with the world. A new study shows a way for that research to reach even more people, spreading new ideas and findings further.

By law, private foundations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are prohibited from lobbying or financially supporting any lobbying efforts of its staff, grantees, or other partners. But as researchers working on high-profile policy issues, it is not always clear if our activities could be considered lobbying.