CSUMB gets $1 million grant to train students in biomedical data science

Cal State Monterey Bay just received $1 million from the National Institutes of Health  to train students in biomedical data science.

There is a growing demand for new ways to store, manage, analyze, and use the massive amounts of electronic data being generated, especially medical data. The five-year grant will help to train professionals for that field and will target students from historically underrepresented and low-income backgrounds.

The grant will be used for three major efforts:

• To establish a summer research program for CSUMB students at the Center for Big Data in Translational Genomics at UC Santa Cruz. The center works to help the biomedical community use genomic information to better understand human health and disease. Visiting CSUMB students will spend the summer working side-by-side with UCSC scientists and data specialists, learning research skills to manage and interpret genomic data.

• To develop new programs, such as an interdisciplinary statistics major, that will include math, statistics, biology, behavioral and computer sciences to prepare students for graduate school and careers in research or industry.

• To create opportunities to extend CSUMB faculty training and research in biomedical data science in collaboration with UCSC faculty members and researchers.

Health care for young adults, topic of conversation at CSUMB

How young adults will be affected by the federal Affordable Care Act is the focus of a forum this week at CSU Monterey Bay. The public is invited to this free event.

The conversation is part of Tyller Williamson's capstone project. Williamson, a human communications major, wants to educate the community about the importance of health insurance as well as to provide opportunities to learn more about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare. He also would like to inspire other students to volunteer in his outreach efforts.

“Healthcare Town Hall for Young Adults” will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in the University Center living room at 5:30 p.m. The University Center is located on Sixth Avenue at B Street.

A panel of local specialists in the health care field and insurance industry as well as policymakers will discuss what college students and other young people need to know about upcoming changes. Panelists include Supervisor Jane Parker; Elliott Robinson, director of Monterey County's Department of Employment and Social Services; and Caroline Haskell, director of health and wellness services at CSUMB.

Driving directions and a campus map can be downloaded at csumb.edu/map. While the event is free, a parking permit must be purchased from a nearby dispenser.

For more information contact Tyller Williamson at 619-886-6012.

Health summer internship offered

Health Career Connection provides paid internship opportunities to undergraduate students interested in careers in public health and healthcare, with a priority emphasis on health management and policy, health education, community health, environmental health, other areas of public health.

The organization strongly encourage students of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply. HCC has a commitment to increasing the number and diversity of healthcare leaders and professionals and also to increasing opportunities for people who are from or want to serve underserved communities.

Deadline to apply is Feb. 11.

For more information, click here.

Pity the poor children, follow the money, and don't shoot the messenger

MPUSD officials and administrators unwittingly stepped into a minefield when they accepted offers by Salud Para La Gente to open a dental clinic at the Cabrillo site.

I didn't make it to the portion of Monday's meeting, when Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas CEO Max Cuevas and his supporters urged Monterey trustees not to approve the contract with Salud Para La Gente. But based on conversations I've had afterwards with interested parties, it can't have been pleasant.

For what I know, major reforms in the federal health care system are coming down the pike, and there will only be limited dollars to local providers, which has unleashed a very ugly fight among them. My guess is it's only going to get uglier.

What concerns me, frankly, it's services, specifically, services for low income children. Had MPUSD not approved the contract with Salud, who knows how long it would have been until children in Seaside had access to dental care. According a preliminary report by CSUMB, there are no dental health clinics for low-income people in the Monterey Peninsula.

I'm not taking sides here. All I'd like to see is children's health needs taken care of. I hope cooler heads prevail and this quarrel doesn't become nastier than it already has.