Research

MICH facilitates a practice-based research network focused on public health systems and services. “Practice-based” means that governmental health departments work with the research team. “Systems and services” research addresses the issues that underpin programming – things like how health departments are organized, staffed, and funded. Together, practitioners and researchers undertake studies in real-world public health settings. The MICH research network includes small, midsized and metro health departments, as well as the Ozarks Public Health Institute and other academic partners.

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Additional research support is provided by the National Network of Medical Libraries (NN/LM), which specializes in working with researchers and locating sources of data; the Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA), with a focus on community health systems and access to the resources of the University of Missouri System Cooperative Extension, and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

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The Missouri Association of Local Public Health Agencies (MoALPHA), which has members from 113 of the 115 autonomous LPHAs in Missouri, provides feedback on the practicality and usefulness of the research to the public health system.

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The primary aims of the MICH research network are to:

1. Encourage and support high quality public health systems and services research (PHSSR) driven by the needs and interests of Missouri’s health departments, and

2. Contribute to the advancement of PHSSR in Missouri and beyond.

 

The objectives are to:

1. Establish a sustainable system in which more and better practice-based research on public health systems and services can be accomplished, 

2. Increase PHSSR capacity in Missouri’s governmental public health agencies,

3. Encourage and facilitate linkages between researchers in public and private academic settings and public health practice partners in order to design, conduct, and disseminate practice-based public health systems and services research, and 

4. Add to the evidence base for effective public health systems and services in Missouri and beyond.

 

For more information, contact the MICH office.