College of Public Health "In the News"

Whether the focus is maternal, reproductive and women’s health, the effects of the proposed ACA and Medicaid cuts on Ohioans, finding solutions to the opioid crisis, regulating tobacco products, or other important issues of our day, College of Public Health experts are creating new knowledge through research and providing timely perspective. 

Some selected examples of CPH faculty and leadership “In the News”:

Public Health Course Earns Quality Matters Certification

Office of Distance Education and eLearning | 
May 9, 2018
Featuring: Rebecca Andridge, PhD; Margaret Murphy, M.Ed.

Courses can become QM certified if QM reviewers determine it meets standards for course design, said Ohio State Lead QM Coordinator Timothy Lombardo. Currently, nine of Ohio State’s online and hybrid courses are QM certified. The Office of Distance Education and eLearning uses the QM Rubric as part of its quality assurance process as it develops courses, as do several Ohio State colleges including the College of Public Health.

Lombardo helped walk Public Health Instructional Design Coordinator Margaret Murphy (link is external) and biostatistics professor Rebecca Andridge, PhD (link is external), through the QM review process. Andridge had used the QM Rubric as a guide when she designed the course in 2014. She worked with Murphy to fill out the Course Worksheet, which the review team uses to help evaluate the course against the rubric

Ohio State organization installs health-friendly stoves in Nicaragua

The Lantern | 
April 27, 2018
Featuring: Mikafui Dzotsi

Mikafui Dzotsi, the outgoing co-president and a fourth-year in public health, said when she was in Nicaragua observing some of these installations, the majority of the families were skeptical at first.

“Obviously they are these new, shiny cool stoves so they were really hopeful, but a lot of them were also nervous because they weren’t sure how they were really going to work and if they were going to be better than their old stoves,” she said.

Project Nicaragua was started in 2009 by Ohio State students with the goal of improving the quality of life in Rancho Grande. Its most recent endeavor was to purchase and install safe cooking stoves in 30 homes, and it plans to increase this number.

Building a culture of research

The Ohio State University | 
April 9, 2018
Featuring: Mikafui Dzotsi

Mikafui Dzotsi has been here before – it’s her second time presenting at Ohio State’s Denman Forum, which has grown into one of the largest undergraduate research forums in the country. Today she stands alongside nearly 800 other students who’ve come here to showcase their hard work.

“I feel like it’s a high point to my time here at Ohio State,” said Dzotsi, a public health major who became interested in preventive medicine during a high school service trip to Nicaragua that involved working in poor communities.

“Plus, both of my parents come from developing countries. My dad is from Ghana and my mom is from Dominica. That also drove my interest in preventive medicine – trying to find solutions to things before they got really bad.”

Dzotsi’s research focused on university protocols for meningitis vaccines. She traveled abroad, interviewed public health officials and combed through pages and pages of data. Now, at the Denman Forum, she proudly displays her project that’s been two years in the making.

...

Dzotsi recognizes a couple slowly making their way down the aisle toward her. The Denmans stop and chat with various students, listening intently and asking detailed questions. Eventually, they end up in front of Dzotsi and take notice of her project, listening as she explains her work.

“I never even realized this was such an issue,” Rick Denman says after she finishes.