Yale, Griffin receive funding from CDC for Prevention Research Center

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D. 

DERBY - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded the Yale School of Public Health and Griffin Hospital up to $3.75 million over the next five years for its Prevention Research Center.

This award will help the PRC continue its mission to prevent chronic disease, while expanding to include prevention research in the digital age. In the next five years, the PRC will assess the feasibility and health impacts of offering a technology-based application of the Diabetes Prevention Program facilitated by community health workers and hospital-based community nurses to low-income adults at risk for type 2 diabetes in New Haven and the Lower Naugatuck Valley towns of Ansonia and Derby.    

The PRC’s founding director, Dr. David L. Katz, said the funding will allow the PRC’s vital work in the greater New Haven area to continue. The award begins Sept. 30.

“We have been honored to work these past 20 years not just for, but with our community partners, exploring ways to prevent chronic disease and promote health both here in Connecticut, and around the country and world,” Katz said. “We couldn't be more delighted that this renewal of CDC's support allows us to continue this important work - and we are excited about the promise of new advances to come.”

The Yale-Griffin PRC was established in 1998 as a partnership between the Yale School of Public Health and Griffin Hospital located in Derby, Conn. Over the past three years, the PRC has expanded that partnership to include Southern Connecticut State University’s School of Health and Human Services.

The new PRC Principal Investigator, Professor Rafael Pérez-Escamilla from the Yale School of Public Health said he is very proud of this CDC award “as it represents a very unique opportunity to understand how to best empower low-income individuals manage their type 2 diabetes through trusted community health workers with support from information technology,” Pérez-Escamilla said.

The Yale School of Public Health/Yale-Griffin PRC is one of 25 CDC-funded PRCs nationwide working as a network to conduct disease prevention research focused on addressing underserved, minority, and other populations with diseases, health hazards, and risk factors that could benefit from prevention programs and strategies.  

In addition to its community-based health promotion and disease prevention research funded by the CDC and other sources, the Yale-Griffin PRC also conducts clinical research to investigate the role of nutrition in promoting health and preventing chronic diseases.

Since its inception, the Yale-Griffin PRC has played a role in securing at least 113 grants, totaling at least $25 million from federal, state, foundation, and industry sponsors. 

For more information, see the Yale-Griffin PRC and the Yale School of Public Health. 

Authorized by Congress in 1984, the Prevention Research Centers are a network of research centers that are university-based and serve a vital role within the public health system. The 2019-2024 PRC network includes 25 funded institutions. PRCs are leaders at the scientific forefront of translating and implementing evidence-based programs. 

To learn more, visit the CDC’s Prevention Research Center website at www.cdc.gov/prc.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.