Brittaney Bethea
How can we invigorate professionals who lead ...
How can we invigorate professionals who lead cardiovascular disease prevention and health promotion programs?
Brittaney Bethea
What Role Do Community Health Workers Play in ...
What Role Do Community Health Workers Play in Collecting Family Health History?

How can we invigorate professionals who lead cardiovascular disease prevention and health promotion programs?

Heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases account for one in every three deaths in the United States and cardiovascular disease is the nation's leading cause of death among both men and women, and the leading cause of health disparities.

We host The Heart of the Matter, a quarterly podcast to invigorate the field of cardiovascular disease prevention and health promotion. In the inaugural episode, we chat with leading experts and their lessons learned from programs implemented at the John Hopkins Hospital during 2023 American #HeartMonth.

For NACDD, we developed a marketing plan for a new podcast, the inaugural episode script, and hosted the first conversation between two leading experts from the John Hopkins Hospital during American #HeartMonth.

Listen here.



What Role Do Community Health Workers Play in Collecting Family Health History?

Family health history (FHH) information is a key factor in determining disease risk and supporting screening and prevention across multiple diseases. The collection of FHH information could be facilitated by the existing cadre of CHWs already working alongside clients and families.

In this qualitative study, 30 CHWs from Georgia were interviewed to better understand the current level of knowledge about FHH, perceptions of how FHH collection aligns with their role, and barriers and facilitators in order to support more active involvement of CHWs in FHH collection.

The research abstract was published by the journal of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers Prev (2020) 29 (6_Supplement_1): B090.

Read more here.

How do we engage vulnerable populations in clinical research?

The mission of the All of Us Research Program is to accelerate health research and medical breakthroughs, enabling individualized prevention, treatment, and care for all of us.

We consulted Morehouse School of Medicine’s Clinical Research Center and the Engagement Team on the development of a digital marketing strategy to reach and encourage communities from diverse backgrounds to participate in the National Institute’s of Health All of Us Research Program.


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What makes mentorship matter?

Crystal Lipsey is a doctoral student at Morehouse School of Medicine who studies the biological relationship between cancer and obesity.

Despite adversity, she has excelled in her program and was awarded fellowships at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

We sat down to interview Crystal and managed an advertorial account to share her story in Diversity in STEAM Magazine’s Fall/Summer 2018 issue.

Read more about the role mentorship played in helping her achieve her research goals (pg. 85).

How is poverty, education, mental health, & residential segregation related to health outcomes?

For the Sake of All was a collaboration between scholars at Washington University and Saint Louis University to report on the health and well-being of African Americans in the St. Louis region. The research team produced five policy briefs in 2013 on topics including poverty, education, mental health, residential segregation, and chronic disease.

We translated and synthesized research from the For the Sake of All Project into news features for institutional publications and local media.

Why are Pregnancy-related Maternal Deaths in the U.S. Increasing?

Review to Action is a online repository of approaches states take to monitor maternal and infant deaths and how they may be prevented. It guides other states who are interested in starting or strengthen their own efforts.

With this project, our Principal Strategist led the kickoff meeting to effectively understand the client’s goals and objectives; guided content strategy after the facilitation of a card sorting exercise and subsequently developed the site map for engineers to program into an interactive website.

Note: Banyan Communications engineered and designed the website.

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What strategies work to promote mental health and prevent substance abuse among Black female collegiate women?

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The Student Health Empowerment Program was a health and wellness intervention funded by SAMHSA for black female college students, using print, digital, event, and peer-to-peer marketing to promote healthy behaviors; 517 students enrolled; 452 students became certified SHE scholars; 151 students were screened for HIV.

Note: Banyan Communications engineered the website and designed all collateral materials.

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Can video games help children understand concussions and when to sit out of sports play?

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Heads Up Rocket Blades is a game available in the iTunes App Store to help children understand what a concussion is and what symptoms they should watch out for, in hopes they tell a parent or adult in the event they hit their head in real-life sports activities.

We conducted thirteen in-person beta testing sessions of the app with children aged 6-8 years old and collaborated with Banyan Communications to document key findings and recommendations for improvement; subsequently developed additional key messages for the game to clarify player instructions. The framework for app development was published in the Journal of Health Promotion Practice. Our Principal Strategist presented on the formative research framework for the development of the game at the 2017 American Public Health Association Annual Conference.

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What data sources are useful for heart disease and stroke prevention programs conducting policy or data surveillance and/or evaluation?

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Before planning any health promotion or disease prevention program, stakeholders should carefully design a surveillance/monitoring and evaluation plan. Otherwise, how will you know if your program efforts are being implemented as intended or achieving the outcomes you desire?

We collaborated with CDC Fellows and the American Heart Association to contribute to “Surveillance and Evaluation Data Resources for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Programs,” which includes a variety of new topic-specific resources, including geographic information systems (GIS) surveillance tools, performance measures for hypertension, and updated tools essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation in heart disease prevention and control. The guide also uniquely includes an updated (2016) media tools table for tracking and reporting relevant media promotion metrics relevant to communication efforts.

Click the image below to learn more.

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How can health departments engage pharmacy partners to enhance team-based care?

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Pharmacists have been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as health care “extenders” in the community who can help improve chronic disease self-management. They may also be well-positioned to deliver patient care services and referrals for additional clinical services. But how do health departments begin to engage pharmacies as partners when traditionally they have not worked together?

We collaborated with CDC fellows and the American Pharmacists Association to contribute to the development of action guides with steps for health departments to begin partnering with pharmacies to improve care management for patients.

Click the image below to learn more.