MCW’s Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment awards $300,000 to increase access to early intervention developmental screens
(Milwaukee) – The Medical College of Wisconsin’s (MCW) Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment awarded $300,000 over two years to help ensure children have access to early intervention developmental screens, and build a support network for children, parents and professionals.
Developmental screens are a best practice for the early identification of delays and a means to directing children to targeted intervention early to resolve persistent health problems. Yet only one-third of Milwaukee children receive a validated developmental screen. It is estimated that early intervention saves $13 for every $1 spent on health care.
The United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, in partnership with Milwaukee Succeeds, a community collaborative working to ensure success for every child in every school, will use its AHW funding to create access to a Parent Education and Support Network (PESN). PESN will promote early developmental screenings for the 47,000 children under age six living in the city of Milwaukee. PESN will increase the number of children participating in developmental screenings by expanding the number of trained and qualified screeners in clinics and childcare centers. In addition, PESN will educate and engage parents in understanding and supporting their child’s development needs.
The United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, which brings together the strengths of the community to improve the quality of life in Southeastern Wisconsin, will work with John Meurer, MD, MBA, director and professor, Institute for Health and Society, at MCW.
Other partners include Children’s Hospital and Health System, Aurora Health Care, SET Inc., Milwaukee School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Extension, Milwaukee Area Health Education Center, Milwaukee County Birth to 3, and others.
About the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment
The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment works to catalyze health improvement in Wisconsin and was created by funds generated from Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin’s conversion to a for-profit corporation. The Endowment’s Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program funded the new awards as part of its continued work supporting partnerships between academics and community health and non-profit organizations for urban, rural and statewide health improvement projects in Wisconsin.
Since 2004, the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program has invested more than $50 million in 169 community-academic health improvement projects. More information on individual projects is available online: http://www.mcw.edu/Advancing-
About the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Medical College of Wisconsin is the state’s only private medical school and health sciences graduate school. Founded in 1893, it is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, and 26 medical students are enrolled at MCW-Green Bay. A regional medical education campus is scheduled to open in Central Wisconsin in 2016. MCW’s School of Pharmacy will open in 2017 or 2018 with an initial class size of 60 students. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY 2014-15, faculty received approximately $158 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes, of which approximately $139 million is for research. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,200 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.
