Helms wins Fulbright award
Dr. Charles Helms, UI professor of internal medicine, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to conduct vaccine policy research in Australia.
Helms, an infectious diseases specialist and medical director of the Office of Clinical Quality, Safety and Performance Improvement at UI Hospitals and Clinics, will travel to New South Wales, Australia in 2009 to study their new policy of health care worker immunization. In 2006, New South Wales implemented a plan that requires the screening and vaccination of all health care workers for preventable diseases. Its goal is to radically reduce the transmission of such diseases among health care workers and to patients.
As part of his Fulbright-supported research, hosted by the University of Sydney, Helms will evaluate the impact of the vaccination plan through data analysis and interviews with Australian public health officials, health policy leaders, health care facility directors, medical and nursing staff, patient and public policy advocates, and other groups.