School Notes: School of Public Health
May/June 2014

Fellows will travel globally

Twenty-three Downs Fellows have been named for 2014 and will soon travel to destinations around the world to conduct original research in public health, medicine, and health care. The fellows come from the Yale Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and Forestry & Environmental Studies, and from the anthropology department. The largest group of fellows in recent memory, they will put their education and training to use this summer throughout Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and on the island of Fiji. The Downs International Health Student Travel Fellowship is named after Wilbur G. Downs (1913–1991), a former Yale professor who counseled students to get outside the classroom and travel to where pressing public health and medical problems exist.

Innovators share success stories

Three leading health innovators shared their personal stories about creating dynamic health-centered organizations, at the Women in Innovation panel discussion at YSPH on March 3. Barbara Bush ’04, Jennifer Staple-Clark ’03, and Yale professor Laura Niklason described how having a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, committed and talented colleagues, personal resilience, and management skills, among other traits, have helped their organizations become international in scope. Staple-Clark started Unite for Sight in her Yale dorm room; Bush is CEO and cofounder of Global Health Corps; and Niklason founded Humacyte, a biotechnology company that seeks to create and implant engineered tissues.  

Temperature changes linked to stroke hospitalizations

Stroke hospitalization rates appear to rise and fall with sharp changes in outdoor temperature and dew point, a pilot study led by YSPH has found. The research, presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2014, found that each 5-degree Fahrenheit change in daily temperature was associated with a 6 percent increased risk of stroke hospitalization. Meanwhile, each 5-degree Fahrenheit increase in the dew point was associated with a 2 percent increase in stroke hospitalization.