Research

University of Victoria Fulbright Scholar Studies Health Systems at UK

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 25, 2015) — A recipient of the Fulbright Canada Scholarship will study health systems and services at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health’s Systems for Action (S4A) center throughout the 2015-2016 academic year.

Second-year doctoral student Thi Hong Phuc Dang from the University of Victoria works with Glen Mays, the F. Douglas Scutchfield Endowed Professor in Health Services and Systems Research and director of the S4A program, to conduct research on public health services and systems in both the United States and Canada. Her Fulbright project is titled, “Are We Measuring Up? Exploring Public Health Performance and Health Equity in the United States and Canada.”

Dang obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied health sciences from Brock University. She is involved in the Equity Lens in Public Health (ELPH) program at the University of Victoria, which focuses on exploring priorities and strategies of health equity in British Columbia. During her training, she will explore how accountability structures and measures influence the performance of core public health activities and how this performance influences health equity using various measures of population health status. She will analyze data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems Instrument combined with demographic and health status surveillance data.  

S4A at the UK College of Public Health is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that aims to discover and apply new evidence about ways of aligning the delivery and financing systems that support a Culture of Health. This program flows directly from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Action Framework, which focuses on four action areas for achieving improvements in health and well-being for all Americans, including making health a shared value, fostering cross-sector collaboration to improve well-being, creating healthier and more equitable communities, and strengthening the integration of health services and systems.

Fulbright is a world-renowned program of highly competitive, merit-based grants and scholarships for academic exchange. The program has supported some 325,000 students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists. The Fulbright Program, which operates in some 155 countries and is one of the world’s most prestigious academic honors, is specifically aimed at promoting mutual understanding and supporting excellence.

Fulbright Canada is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. It is a bi-national, treaty-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, governed by an independent board of directors, charged with identifying and supporting the very best and brightest in Canada and the United States.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu