In Any Language: Improving the Quality and Availability of Language Services in Hospitals

Showcases initiatives and interventions implemented in ten hospitals participating in RWJF's Speaking Together initiative to measure and enhance language services delivery. Discusses factors for success, strategies for improvement, and lessons learned

Growing and Sustaining Community Health Workers in Missouri

With funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health, in August 2022 The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health began a 12-month study to assess the Community Health Worker field in Missouri. The resulting report, Growing and Sustaining Community Health Workers in Missouri, provides a landscape of current CHW workforce activity in the state, reviews recent milestones in the development of the profession, and profiles innovative training and practice models being employed in Missouri. The report draws on perspectives about the profession from interviews with 40 individuals from the field, including CHWs and others who supervise or work alongside CHWs, and features their ideas for ensuring a strong workforce. Finally, practical recommendations for growing and sustaining the workforce are offered that respond to the needs identified by interviewees as well as recent CHW-related policy and advocacy approaches in other states

Experiences of Black and Latino Residents During the COVID-19 Response in Missouri

Experiences of Black and Latino Residents During the COVID-19 Response in Missouri centers conversations from focus groups and interviews with Black and Latino Missourians from the St. Louis and Southwest regions during the state’s response to COVID-19. The report examines challenges that Black and Latino Missourians faced during the pandemic and how inequities in response efforts hampered their reach, effectiveness, and further exacerbated the pandemic’s impact on people of color in Missouri. Lessons learned from these conversations provide ways that leaders in public health, health care, social service, and government sectors can create stronger, more equitable systems of care. The findings in this report focus on the period of the pandemic from March 2020 through May 2021, before the proliferation of the delta and omicron variants. The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri, The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri, The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri, and Experiences of Black and Latino Residents During the COVID-19 Response in Missouri, are part of a series of reports that were used to inform the state-level recommendations in the report Missouri’s Public Health Response to COVID-19: Key Findings and Recommendations for State Action and Investment

Building a High-Quality Language Services Program Toolkit

Ten hospitals with racially and ethnically diverse patient populations participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation\u27s Speaking Together: National Language Services Network, a program aimed at improving the quality and availability of health care language services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). This toolkit provides advice to hospitals on improving quality and accessibility of language services

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri documents efforts by St. Louis Missouri’s local public health agencies along with other stakeholders to leverage their partnerships, resources, and expertise to respond to COVID-19. Along with professional stakeholder accounts, the report includes residents’ perspectives and experiences during the COVID-19 response. Professional and resident findings helped identify lessons that could strengthen the public health system’s ability to continue responding to COVID-19 and face future crisis with greater resources, coordination, equitable strategies, modernized infrastructure and public trust. The findings in this report center on the period of the pandemic from March 2020 through May 2021, before the proliferation of the Delta and Omicron variants. The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri along with The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri and The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri are part of a series of regional reports that were used to inform the state-level recommendations in the report Missouri’s Public Health Response to COVID-19: Key Findings and Recommendations for State Action and Investment

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri documents efforts by Northeast Missouri’s local public health agencies along with other stakeholders to leverage their partnerships, resources, and expertise to respond to COVID-19. Along with professional stakeholder accounts, the report includes residents’ perspectives and experiences during the COVID-19 response. Professional and resident findings helped identify lessons that could strengthen the public health system’s ability to continue responding to COVID-19 and face future crisis with greater resources, coordination, equitable strategies, modernized infrastructure and public trust. The findings in this report center on the period of the pandemic from March 2020 through May 2021, before the proliferation of the Delta and Omicron variants. The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri along with The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri and The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri are part of a series of regional reports that were used to inform the state-level recommendations in the report Missouri’s Public Health Response to COVID-19: Key Findings and Recommendations for State Action and Investment

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri

The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri documents efforts by Southwest Missouri’s local public health agencies along with other stakeholders to leverage their partnerships, resources, and expertise to respond to COVID-19. Along with professional stakeholder accounts, the report includes residents’ perspectives and experiences during the COVID-19 response. Professional and resident findings helped identify lessons that could strengthen the public health system’s ability to continue responding to COVID-19 and face future crisis with greater resources, coordination, equitable strategies, modernized infrastructure and public trust. The findings in this report center on the period of the pandemic from March 2020 through May 2021, before the proliferation of the Delta and Omicron variants. The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Southwest Region of Missouri along with The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the Northeast Region of Missouri and The Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the St. Louis Region of Missouri are part of a series of regional reports that were used to inform the state-level recommendations in the report Missouri’s Public Health Response to COVID-19: Key Findings and Recommendations for State Action and Investment

Koala retrovirus viral load and disease burden in distinct northern and southern koala populations

Koala retrovirus (KoRV) displays features of both an endogenous and exogenous virus and is linked to neoplasia and immunosuppression in koalas. This study explores the apparent differences in the nature and impact of KoRV infection between geographically and genetically separated "northern" and "southern" koala populations, by investigating the disease status, completeness of the KoRV genome and the proviral (DNA) and viral (RNA) loads of 71 northern and 97 southern koalas. All northern animals were positive for all KoRV genes (gag, pro-pol and env) in both DNA and RNA forms, whereas many southern animals were missing one or more KoRV genes. There was a significant relationship between the completeness of the KoRV genome and clinical status in this population. The proviral and viral loads of the northern population were significantly higher than those of the southern population (P

Genetic diversity of Koala retrovirus (KoRV) env gene subtypes: Insights into northern and southern koala populations

Koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a recently endogenised retrovirus associated with neoplasia and immunosuppression in koala populations. The virus is known to display sequence variability and to be present at varying prevalence in different populations, with animals in southern Australia displaying lower prevalence and viral loads than northern animals. This study used a PCR and next generation sequencing strategy to examine the diversity of the KoRV env gene in both proviral DNA and viral RNA forms in two distinct populations representative of the “northern” and “southern” koala genotypes. The current study demonstrated that the full range of KoRV subtypes is present across both populations, and in both healthy and sick animals. KoRV-A was the predominant proviral subtype in both populations, but there was marked diversity of DNA and RNA subtypes within individuals. Many of the northern animals displayed a higher RNA viral diversity than evident in their proviral DNA, indicating relatively higher replication efficiency of non-KoRV-A subtypes. The southern animals displayed a lower absolute copy number of KoRV than the northern animals as reported previously and a higher preponderance of KoRV-A in individual animals. These discrepancies in viral replication and diversity remain unexplained but may indicate relative protection of the southern population from KoRV replication due to either viral or host factors and may represent an important protective effect for the host in KoRV’s ongoing entry into the koala genome

Recognition of Lyso-Phospholipids by Human Natural Killer T Lymphocytes

Natural killer T (NKT) cells are a subset of T lymphocytes with potent immunoregulatory properties. Recognition of self-antigens presented by CD1d molecules is an important route of NKT cell activation; however, the molecular identity of specific autoantigens that stimulate human NKT cells remains unclear. Here, we have analyzed human NKT cell recognition of CD1d cellular ligands. The most clearly antigenic species was lyso-phosphatidylcholine (LPC). Diacylated phosphatidylcholine and lyso-phosphoglycerols differing in the chemistry of the head group stimulated only weak responses from human NKT cells. However, lyso-sphingomyelin, which shares the phosphocholine head group of LPC, also activated NKT cells. Antigen-presenting cells pulsed with LPC were capable of stimulating increased cytokine responses by NKT cell clones and by freshly isolated peripheral blood lymphocytes. These results demonstrate that human NKT cells recognize cholinated lyso-phospholipids as antigens presented by CD1d. Since these lyso-phospholipids serve as lipid messengers in normal physiological processes and are present at elevated levels during inflammatory responses, these findings point to a novel link between NKT cells and cellular signaling pathways that are associated with human disease pathophysiology.</p