2004-2007 Northeastern Integrated Urban Project and the Medellín Miracle : An Urban Legend or a Model for Urban Renewal?

Since the rise of social urbanism planning in Medellín in the 1990’s, the city of Medellín has implemented several urban renewal projects aimed at addressing marginalization in Medellín’s informal settlements. Since 2008, the city received dozens of international awards which recognize the city’s urban renewal efforts as innovative, sustainable, and making a humane contribution. This paper compares the rhetoric of four select awards: The Innovative City of the Year Award, the Veronica Rudge Green Prize, Medellín’s winning bid to host the 7th World Urban Forum, and the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize with the results of the 2004-2007 northeastern Integrated Urban Project (PUI). The analysis of this work draws upon four data sources: “objective” statistical data, photographs, and the results of two perception-based surveys. The results of the data conclude that the northeastern PUI intervention fails to live up to the innovative, sustainable, and humane claims of its merits, making only trivial contributions to address existing marginalization. The findings support existing claims that question the merits based on evidence of international policy transfer, neoliberal city modeling, and the limitations of the PUI’s spaces of exception. Additionally, the findings claim that the awards ignore the transformative work of peripheral settlers, arguing that informal model and transformative are not mutually exclusive in addressing Medellín’s marginalization

Determinants of Bluetooth-Enabled Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring in Federally Qualified Health Centers

Background: In 2021, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) launched the National Hypertension Control Initiative (HTN Initiative) with the goal to enhance HTN control through Bluetooth-enabled self-measured blood pressure (BT-SMBP) monitoring and use this data to inform clinical decisions in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) with a large proportion of their population with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP). We sought to understand the experience of Michigan-based FQHCs in implementing the HTN initiative. Methods: Staff from three Michigan-based FQHCs were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews from September to November 2022. Interviews were conducted in-person and were based on the Tailored Implementation in Chronic Diseases framework. Content analysis was performed by three coders. Results: Ten staff participated in interviews (FQHC 1: n = 6, FQHC 2: n = 1, FQHC 3: n = 3). The FQHCs differed in their stage of implementation and their approach. FQHC 1 created a large-scale, community health worker driven program, FQHC 2 created a small-scale, short term, BP device loan program, and FQHC 3 created a primarily outsourced, large-scale program through a contracted partner. Positive staff attitudes and outcome expectations, previous experience with SMBP grants, supportive clinic leadership, social support, and free BP cuff resources were identified as facilitators to implementation. Patients’ high social needs, SMBP-related Technology, and insufficient workforce and staff capacity were identified as barriers. Conclusion: BT-SMBP among FQHC patients is promising but challenges in integrating SMBP data into clinic workflow, workforce capacity to support the high social needs of participants, and to assist in reacting to the more frequent BP data remain to be overcome