March 21, 2017

Join New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress for an exciting research seminar and happy hour!

 

Agenda:

4:00pm – 5:00pm – research seminar with Lorna Thorpe, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Epidemiology Division at the NYU School of Medicine in the Department of Population Health

Innovations in population-based monitoring of the health of NYC residents: Unlike reportable communicable health conditions, localities rarely have timely or accurate data on the true burden of chronic illnesses among residents in their jurisdiction, including on leading and preventable causes of morbidity and mortality.  In this seminar, Dr. Thorpe presents new innovations to track chronic diseases and their risk factors using population-based surveys and electronic health record (EHR) networks.  In 2013, Dr. Thorpe and colleagues performed a population-based health study on adult residents using biomeasures (NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Study, or NYC HANES), modeled after NHANES.  Results from this study will be presented and shown how they are being used to validate new data streams: for example, Dr. Thorpe will also describe a new EHR-based population health surveillance system for New York City (NYC) known as NYC Macroscope. Few other EHR-based initiatives tracking population-based metrics have been validated for accuracy.

Speaker Bio: Lorna Thorpe is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Epidemiology Division at the NYU School of Medicine in the Department of Population Health. Her current research focuses on the intersection between epidemiology and policy, mostly with respect to chronic disease prevention and management and improving modern forms of public health surveillance.  She is currently principal investigator of a large citywide health examination survey (NYC HANES) that aims to evaluate a number of municipal health policies launched in the past decade, as well as validate the use of electronic health records for population health surveillance purposes.  She is also co-principal investigator of the NYU-CUNY Prevention Research Center funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a Center aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease disparities through evaluation of innovative community-clinical linkage initiatives in low-income communities.  Dr. Thorpe is on the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology (ACE) and is the Chair-elect for the ACE Policy Committee. She has served on Institute of Medicine committees and as an advisor to the CDC on population health surveillance issues.

Prior to her arrival to CUNY SPH in 2009, Dr. Thorpe spent 8 years at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, serving as Deputy Commissioner of Epidemiology for the last 5 years.  Dr. Thorpe began her applied research career as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in international tuberculosis (TB) control.  Dr. Thorpe completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, M.P.H. at University of Michigan, and B.A. at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to completing her Ph.D., she lived and worked in Asia (China, Indonesia) for more than 5 years, focusing on designing and evaluating family planning and HV/AIDS program.  Dr. Thorpe has published widely on both chronic and infectious disease topics.

5:00pm – 6:15pm –  informal happy hour and networking with CUSP faculty, students, and administrators.