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It has been a tense and stressful couple of weeks in Washington as the negotiations about raising America's debt went from the usual political arm-wrestling to facing the reality that the United States may actually default on its debt. The very concept left reporters and experts scrambling to explain what this could mean for the country's economy, civil service and global financial reputation. And when answers, explanations and expert perspective was needed, Georgia Southern University's Michael Toma, Ph.D., was sought out to talk about the effect of a looming U.S. debt default. Georgia Public Broadcasting spoke to Toma, who explained the situation and the impact of not reaching a deal could have locally and on a broader spectrum. If you're a reporter looking to know more about important topics like this - then let us help. Michael Toma, Ph.D., researches regional economics and public choice at Georgia Southern. He's available to speak with reporters simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
Ask an Expert: Can a Recession Boost Employee Job Satisfaction?
Will the United States tip into recession in 2023? The jury for many remains out, though there are enough clouds forming on the horizon to cause consternation for firms eyeing the next financial quarter. But while recessions invariably spell belt-tightening, are they always plain bad for business? Could there be some kind of silver lining to hard times? New research led by Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi suggests there is in fact an upside to economic downturns: higher employee job satisfaction. Bianchi and colleagues from Oglethorpe and Hong Kong Polytechnic Universities have found that in times of increased financial uncertainty, people tend to think less about other opportunities or openings, and focus more on the jobs they actually have. This in turn makes us see our jobs and workplace more favorably, says Bianchi. “It might feel counter-intuitive because there’s reason to think that tumultuous times make the workplace and workplace relations more tense or challenging. But we wanted to explore whether the security of having a job in an economic slump might positively impact the way people think about their roles and employers,” Bianchi says. Our hunch was that fewer available jobs outside the organization may translate into greater satisfaction with the jobs we have in hand when there’s a recession. To test this possibility, Bianchi and co-authors ran three studies. The first looked at almost 50 years of data from the U.S. General Social Survey, a cross-sectional barometer of people’s attitudes and opinions, including their assessment of the economy and satisfaction with the work they do. Through analyses of respondents’ answers between 1974 and 2016, Bianchi et al. found compelling evidence to support their hypothesis: at both the national and state level, job satisfaction rose during recessions and fell off again when the economy did better. A second study analyzed data from the U.K. where recessions tend to hit at the same time as the United States, but can be more or less severe. Two surveys conducted by the University of Essex followed the same respondents between 1991 and 2013, allowing Bianchi et al. to measure how individual job satisfaction fluctuated with macro-economic changes. Limiting their analysis to those people who remained employed over the time period and controlling for things like age, gender and income, the researchers were able to isolate the impact of recession based on the way that a group of just over 8,500,000 employees felt about their jobs. They found the same pattern. “By looking at the same individuals over time, we’re able to eliminate any impact coming from changes in the composition of the workforce across economic cycles,” says Bianchi. The same pattern emerged: during bad economic times, people reported greater job satisfaction even within the same group. Unlocking the Upside of Downturns To dig deeper into the psychological mechanisms undergirding these patterns, Bianchi et al. ran an experiment. One group was shown “bad news” about the economy, while the other read a report on economic growth and “plentiful jobs.” Both groups were then asked to self-report on job satisfaction. Those who had read the news article on recession and unemployment reported greater contentment with their current jobs. Moreover, when reminded of recessions, they reported that alternative jobs became less salient, which in turn led to greater job satisfaction. In other words, their own jobs were “more satisfying.” One implication of these findings is that they challenge the notion that job satisfaction is exclusively dictated by what happens inside the organization. We tend to think of businesses as bubbles that are somehow impervious to the outside world. But these studies show broader societal events can affect us in surprising ways. A Silver Lining for Employers Recessions are rarely welcome news. And for employers, they can engender feelings of hopelessness, says Bianchi. The insights shared in her paper should provide some reassurance, nonetheless, that even when the chips are down, they might have one less thing to worry about. But there’s a caveat. Our findings suggest that there might actually be a bright side to recessions for employers; that greater job satisfaction during these difficult times might help people psychologically weather an otherwise challenging situation. “Of course, this does not mean that employers should take advantage of this surprising goodwill by asking more of their employees. Rather, while employers likely believe that there is little they can do to bolster job satisfaction during tough times, our research suggests that satisfaction-boosting efforts may be even more effective. Moreover, our findings suggest that employers should be more attuned to bolstering satisfaction when times are good and employees are particularly apt to be looking at other opportunities.” Interested in learning more about how a recession may impact the workplace? Then let us help with your coverage and questions. Goizueta Business School’s Emily Bianchi is available to speak regarding this important topic - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
How Colorism Impacts Professional Achievement
Melissa J. Williams is associate professor of organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She investigates what happens when social identities collide with workplace hierarchies, and the consequences of putting people in positions of power and leadership. Here she looks at something less documented: the extent to which our appearance is stereotypically Black or white. And what that means for our prospects. Rosa Parks made history on December 1, 1955, when she refused to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger. Her simple gesture of defiance ignited a city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and has gone down in the annals as a pivotal moment for the social justice movement in the United States. However, Parks was not the only African American to make a stand against racial segregation. Nor was she the first. In March of the same year in the same city, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin also refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a Montgomery bus. So why isn’t she a household name? In part, Colvin’s age was a factor. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other Black civil rights groups got behind Parks, reasoning that an older woman would be better equipped to withstand the controversy. But as Colvin herself stated, there were other factors at play. There was something about Parks’ appearance that gave her more leverage, reasons Colvin explained in Philip Hoose’s award-winning book on the civil rights movement. She had the “right hair and the right look.” Not only that, but her appearance “was the kind that people associate with the middle class. She fit that profile.” Success isn’t black or white. It’s shades of…white. Colorism has long been documented in the U.S. and elsewhere. Discrimination against human beings on the basis of their facial features, hair, and skin color transcends race—it is prevalent even within groups that share the same ethnic identity, where lighter skin tones are perceived to be more valuable than dark. Research over the years has shed light on the nefarious effects of colorism or shadeism in terms of equity and access to opportunity. But a new landmark study by Associate Professor of Organization & Management Melissa Williams, and Goizueta colleagues, PhD student Tosen Nwadei and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair of Organization & Management Anand Swaminathan, looks at just how Black or white someone appears—and how this shapes the way others see their potential; as well as the kinds of professional outcomes they can expect. What Williams and her co-authors, who also include James B. Wade from George Washington University and C. Keith Harrison and Scott Bukstein of University of Central Florida, find in their studies, is that Black professionals are less likely to be promoted to leadership roles. What’s more, for Black professionals whose physical appearance is more Black-stereotypical, their chances drop from 12 percent to a mere seven percent. For white professionals, on the other hand, having a more white-stereotypical appearance is an advantage for leadership – looking more stereotypical as a white person increased their chances of holding a leadership role from 32 percent to 43 percent. Williams and colleagues ran both an archival study and a lab experiment with volunteers to discover the extent to which degrees of ethnicity in appearance influence perceptions of a person’s potential for leadership and actually predict their likelihood of success in an industry. While the science unequivocally shows that white people enjoy advantages over Black people in opportunity and outcome across the board, Williams et al. were also interested in exploring what she calls the “continuum of race:” the more nuanced racial characteristics and differences that shape how the world sees us. There’s an assumption that everyone within the same ethnic group—Black or white—will experience the same degree of bias and prejudice, or acceptance and success. And we wanted to push back on that idea to really explore how degrees of whiteness or Blackness play out in people’s minds and shape how they read you physically. -Associate Professor of Organization & Management Melissa Williams Previous research shows the link between persisting in STEM-based majors in college and how much students are perceived to look “like their race,” she says. Those who are perceived to look less typically Black tend to make more friends outside their ethnic group—a boundary-crossing behavior that can help drive careers. To test these ideas, Williams and co-authors ran two studies. First, they accessed publicly available data including photographs, professional background, and positions from one large industry within the U.S.: American college football. College football is really rich in data. You can access job titles, photos, leadership, and non-leadership roles; and you can separate individuals out into head coaches and position coaches who have overseeing roles but who are not leaders per se. Separately, Williams et al. recruited a group of volunteers to look at the images of the football coaches: a mix of Black and white head and position coaches. These volunteers were asked to rate how typical they perceived each individual’s appearance to be of European or white Americans, or of Black Americans, ascribing each person a score out of five based on features such as their skin color, hair, eyes, nose, cheeks, and lips. These scores were then regressed—or cross-referenced—with the position held by the individuals in the photos to determine the relationship between their racial stereotypicality and their leadership role. Crunching the numbers, Williams found a direct correlation between the degree of perceived whiteness or Blackness of the coaches and how likely they actually were to be successful leaders. “We do find a kind of consensus in people’s view of what it means to be Black or white straight off,” says Williams. “So we do all seem to agree on the physical attributes of race. But it gets really interesting when you regress the scores that these photos get and compare them with the actual jobs these guys hold.” What we see is that, controlling for their age, attractiveness, and professional experience, the white guys who look less stereotypically white are 32 percent likely to occupy leadership roles. This rises to 43 percent with the men who look more like a stereotypical white guy. For Black professionals, the inverse is true, she notes. The more typically Black an individual looks, the less probability there is that he occupies a leadership job. Specifically, that figure drops from 12 to seven percent. So benchmark leadership probability is not only already lower for Black individuals, but drops even further when people are deemed to look “more typically Black,” says Williams. A follow-up experiment invited volunteer football fans to compare how they saw the potential future success of two same-race college football players—one more stereotypical in appearance than the other. The results confirm what Williams et al. suspect: 70 percent of the time, participants chose the more-typical white individual over the less-typical white individual as having greater leadership potential. In other words, the more white a white person looks, the more they are seen as leadership material. These findings should translate into an imperative, says Williams; and that is to think more broadly about race and how it impacts life outcomes. Because race is not a uniform experience, she says. “Organizations might want to look beyond just ticking the box when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and give deeper thought to who they want to recruit, support and push forward in representation. For white people, paying attention to whiteness—the types of white people who enjoy advantages in leadership—can be useful in reframing certain questions. A good place to start might be for leaders to ask: do I want to support people who look like me? Because the face you choose can ultimately help disrupt, or reinforce, the stereotype.” Interested in learning more or connecting with Melissa J. Williams, associate professor of organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School? She's available to speak about this subject - Simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
Craig M. Harvey, Ph.D., has been selected to serve as the new dean of the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing beginning July 1. “I am excited to welcome Dean Craig Harvey to Georgia Southern University as the next generation of leadership for the College of Engineering and Computing,” said Carl L. Reiber, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Dean Harvey brings with him an understanding of what a vibrant and growing research university will need to move to the next level as our region expands in its engineering and computing needs.” Harvey comes to Georgia Southern University from Louisiana State University, where he serves as the associate dean for academic affairs of the College of Engineering, professor of Industrial Engineering and is the holder of the Donald W. Clayton University Professorship. He brings to Georgia Southern a wealth of knowledge in leadership, student growth and expansion and advanced engineering studies. “It will be a great honor to serve as the next dean of the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing, a college that prepares graduates in engineering, construction and computing to be ready to take on the challenges facing Georgia and the country in the 21st century,” Harvey said. “I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, alumni and industry to position the college to meet the future demands in both education and research in the state where my engineering career began.” His research interests include human computer interaction, usability engineering, human collaboration within complex environments, human factors engineering and safety engineering. Harvey worked full time as a maintenance engineer and captain at Grand Forks Air Base in North Dakota and served in the United States Air Force Reserves while earning a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Purdue University. He holds a bachelor's in industrial engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a master's in industrial engineering degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. For more information — simply reach out to Georgia Southern Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.
Augusta University’s second annual Healthy Georgia Report has been released, offering a snapshot of health in the Peach State as compared to not only neighboring states, but also the entire country. While Georgia’s population is doing well in some key health factors, researchers also found areas that could benefit from more awareness and public policy action. Biplab Datta, PhD, assistant professor in the Institute of Public and Preventive Health and the Medical College of Georgia’s Department of Population Health Sciences, collaborated with other IPPH faculty and staff to update the report and add new categories this year. The goal of the report is to connect with lawmakers, community leaders and researchers, stimulate conversations about public health needs and promote action, such as greater community engagement, research for informing effective policies and appraisal of required funds. “We need to make lawmakers aware of the public health situation in the state of Georgia,” said Datta. “We hope this report will help identify areas that need policy attention. It can also play an important role in bridging the gap between researchers and policymakers.” Using 2021 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance system, the National Survey of Children’s Health, the American Community Survey and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker website, the report was compiled on numerous health topics. Some categories studied include high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, alcohol consumption, diabetes and more. It also broke down each category by age, sex, race, income level and other socioeconomic indicators to get a full representation of the data. New to the study this year is an in-depth look at health insurance coverage, COVID-19 vaccinations, breastfeeding, child maltreatment, and unmet healthcare need of children. Georgia ranks 49th in the nation when it comes to health insurance coverage. That was a surprise to Datta. “I didn’t expect the numbers to be that bad, but I think it also indicates the scope of work that we need to undertake to improve insurance coverage in Georgia,” he said. Another surprise was the low rate of flu vaccination in Georgia. “We know there is a difference between whites and Blacks in the U.S. But when we look at and compare Black people in Georgia with Blacks in the rest of the southeastern states, we see the flu vaccination rate was significantly lower among Blacks in Georgia. This is an issue that warrants further research to understand the underlying causes of such disparity,” said Datta. As it was a year ago, hypertension remains a concern. There are several issues involved when talking about hypertension but there are also straightforward ways to improve the condition Datta said. “I think one of the core components of hypertension control is just changing some behavioral stuff. If we just reduced the sodium content in our daily diet, if we do regular physical exercise for a certain amount of time that will significantly improve our hypertension management. Community-level initiatives to make people aware of these things can make a real difference,” said Datta. Residents in Georgia are doing better in several areas such as obesity, cancer rates, asthma prevalence and depressive disorders. Datta said it’s important to recognize these improvements so we can learn from them. “We need to figure out where we are doing well and use that experience in areas where we are not doing so well. It will help us move toward the right direction.” He added it’s important to always be looking for ways to evolve the study, and that includes adding new categories when enough data is available. “We didn’t cover sexually transmitted diseases in this year’s report, which we would like to add when data will become available. We’d also like to add teenage pregnancy, maternal health issues, gun violence and opioid use,” he said. Looking to learn about health in the Peach State? Then let us help. Biplab Datta is available to speak with media regarding this important topic. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
Late last year, America was gripped with a shortage of frightening proportions and potential deadly consequences - baby formula was all but gone from store shelves and near impossible to find. Parents were panicked, newborns needed to eat and the government became desperate to source, import and distribute the baby formula to nervous mothers and children in need of nutrition. It's a topic that captured global attention and recently UMW's Sushma Subramanian - a journalist and assistant professor - looked to explain what was happening and how country's like Brazil might have found the natural way to solve this problem. Here's an excerpt from her piece in National Geographic: Five days after the early delivery of her baby last month at a municipal hospital, Talita Alves Araújo Lourenço sat in a chair while a nurse helped her express breast milk into a glass jar. Araújo, 20, had given birth at 32 weeks; she had known early delivery was likely because she had been diagnosed with preeclampsia. At first, her baby could only drink her milk through a tube, but even after developing the strength and coordination to feed from her breast, Araújo was producing too much. The nurse was helping her to empty her breasts so they would feel more comfortable and to donate the extra milk. “To know that my milk could be saving someone is very important to me,” says Araújo. While the ongoing formula shortage that began in February 2022 affected families of infants who couldn't find supplies at the store, it also renewed interest in donation of breast milk to milk banks that supply it to hospitals for vulnerable newborns. Brazil is widely considered the world’s leading example of milk banking because of a program started in the 1980s that combined promotion and training in breastfeeding with donation. The country today runs 228 of the world’s approximately 750 human milk banks. The United States, by comparison, has 28 that are members of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. January 2023, National Geographic Magazine The rest of the article is attached and is well worth the read. If you are a journalist looking to speak with Sushma Subramanian about her latest book, then let us help. Simply click on Sushma’s icon now to arrange a time and interview. How breast milk banks could avert the next formula crisis (National Geographic) Sushma Subramanian, associate professor of journalism, published a story in National Geographic on how Brazil has become the world’s leader in breast milk banking, inspiring similar programs in other countries. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/brazil-breast-milk-banking-program-formula-crisis
The effects of social media on domestic terrorism - Our experts have the answers
There is no question social media has an impact on today’s society. Worldwide there isn’t much research available with empirical evidence showing its effect. Lance Hunter, PhD, associate professor in Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the Masters of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies program at Augusta University recently was part of two studies that show evidence linking social media to political violence including domestic terrorism and civil conflict. The studies included over 150 countries and covered the time frame 2000 to 2019. “One of the things we found very interesting is the amount of time that people spend on social media on average within each country per year. It really does matter in affecting the amount of domestic terrorism within countries,” said Hunter. While many are focused on what happens domestically, Hunter found that some countries have more social media usage as compared to the United States and have varying amounts of political violence within their countries. “When social media is dangerous is when it increases polarization. When it’s used to spread disinformation that disinformation can have a polarizing effect on citizens around the world, and that polarization is associated with political violence.” Even socio-economic factors can play a role in social media and its effect on people in a country. “Looking at our research and data and looking across democracies and non-democracies, different income levels of countries most developed, less developed, we see there is a noticeable effect that social media can really influence political violence, especially if it’s used for disinformation purposes.” He went on to add since their data ended in 2019, and there have been instances of violence in the U.S. since then, researchers may continue to speculate on the relationship between social media posts and the acts of domestic terrorism. Here's an excerpt from the journal's abstract in Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression: Much qualitative research has drawn an association between social media and domestic terrorism, with the studies reaching different conclusions. However, few empirical studies have evaluated whether the surge in social media participation affects domestic terrorist events. Controlling for common explanations in the literature, we conduct a cross-national, time-series analysis of up to 151 countries from 2000 to 2019 to assess the impact of social media penetration on domestic terrorism. We find that greater social media penetration increases the likelihood of domestic terrorism in countries as it supports extremists’ ability to recruit, mobilize, and train terrorists. Using mediation analysis, we also find that greater social media penetration amplifies online and political polarization, increasing the likelihood of domestic terrorism events. Our work indicates the possible mechanisms linking social media and domestic terrorism and the need to develop and apply appropriate counterterrorism strategies to mitigate terrorist operations. “There is a noticeable effect that social media can really influence political violence, especially if it’s used for disinformation purposes. I think maybe it’s just something to think about going forward for governments and citizens regarding how we should approach social media because I think with any type of technology, it can be used for good or for evil.” While there are countries that try to limit certain social media platforms depending on what information is being transmitted, there will likely be ways around any restrictions put in place. “When you’re thinking overall regarding social media, and we’re thinking about communication over social media, is that individuals at times do have certain technologies that they can circumvent those controls at times. So it can be a cat and mouse game between the government and the citizens.” Dr. Lance Hunter is an assistant professor of political science with a background in international relations. His research focuses on how terrorist attacks influence politics in democratic countries and how political decisions within countries affect conflicts worldwide. Hunter is available to speak with media about this important topic - simply click on his icon to arrange an interview today.
ExpertFile-powered “Our Experts” site makes health experts findable and accessible to media at a click of a button ChristianaCare and its collaborative partner ExpertFile have been recognized with a 2022 Silver Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for its "Our Experts" media database. Designed to easily and quickly connect journalists to subject-matter experts, this online resource has been recognized with the top prize – an “Award of Excellence” in the Communications Management, Media Relations category. The IABC Silver Quill Awards showcase business communication excellence and are acknowledged as among the most prestigious awards programs in the communications industry. “I’m proud to accept the Silver Quill Award on behalf of our organization and our incredible Communications team, including our ExpertFile partners,” said Shane Hoffman, communications director at ChristianaCare. “The ‘Our Experts’ platform has given us next-level ways to engage our experts and share our knowledge as a trusted source of health care information. It has also helped us re-imagine the traditional online news room experience and turn it into a truly new and innovative way to serve the needs of both journalists and our community.” IABC’s Silver Quill awards honor the dedication, innovation and passion of communicators on a global scale. Each entry is scored independently by evaluators who judge the award submission on factors that include: stakeholder analysis, strategic and tactical planning, quality of execution and measurable results. Since launching in March 2021, the "Our Experts" media database has received more than 20,000 online visits and has resulted in more than 200 news stories. “We are honored to earn this Silver Quill Award with our client, ChristianaCare,” said Peter Evans, CEO of ExpertFile. “Despite the pressures of the pandemic, their team collaborated closely with us to create a world-class program that continues to help a variety of audiences discover and connect every day with credible medical experts and groundbreaking research.” Powered by the ExpertFile software platform, the ChristianaCare “Our Experts” site provides a digital media toolkit with advanced search/digital content features to help journalists discover experts and access resources that make it easier for them to complete stories and meet their deadlines. Awarding top honors “with distinction,” the IABC judging panel provided a number of detailed comments on the “ChristianaCare Experts Program”: “Very well-done website. Nice content that is well organized and searchable. From planning and implementation to measurement afterward the program shows great work.” “Great work in the time of COVID. Your knowledge of journalists and their challenges. during COVID was spot-on.” “I liked the media advisories. Having been on both sides of the reporter/media relations thing, I like clear and simple. You achieved this!” “If I were a reporter, the advisory would be invaluable when I needed an expert.” “Very specific and focused on business-results. Great work here.” “Very comprehensive! You thought of everything without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.” Nearly 100 ChristianaCare experts are featured in the database today, and that number continues to grow. “As communicators in health care, it has always been important for us to provide timely, accurate, easy-to-understand information to the communities we serve so that people can make informed decisions about their health,” said Karen Browne, vice president of marketing and communications at ChristianaCare. “The COVID-19 pandemic added an entirely new level of urgency to our role as communicators, and it made it even more important for us to build strong relationships with our partners in the news media so that they can deliver compelling, actionable health information to the community—from experts they can trust.” The pandemic also highlighted the need to do more with less. ChristianaCare’s innovation was driven out of a desire to improve the reach, impact and efficiency of its media relations efforts—amid rapidly increasing demand—without the need to add additional resources. “With our partners at ExpertFile, we leveraged ExpertFile’s outstanding technology platform to create a database of our experts that helps reporters and news producers find the sources they need quickly, and it enables our team to nimbly manage their requests and facilitate interviews in a way that makes the absolute best use of our resources,” Hoffman said. “The ExpertFile team worked as our strategic thought partners throughout this process, and they’ve really embraced our desire for innovation that drives results. They’ve helped us to work smarter and do more without adding a lot of additional resources. Together, we’ve built a system and process that is helping us to communicate in new and better ways—and we’re just getting started.” About ChristianaCare Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,299 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute. ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as the 2nd best health system for diversity and inclusion, and the 29th best health system to work for in the United States, and by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is rated by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals and continually ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek and other national quality ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.
ChristianaCare Rated a High Performing Hospital for Maternity by U.S. News & World Report
ChristianaCare is the only health system in Delaware to earn the High Performing designation from U.S. News ChristianaCare has earned the highest award for maternity care that a hospital can achieve from U.S. News & World Report in its 2022-23 ratings for Best Hospitals for Maternity Care. Rated as a High Performing Hospital, ChristianaCare was the only health system in Delaware to earn this esteemed honor. Christiana Hospital at ChristianaCare’s Newark Campus is the only high-risk delivering hospital in the First State offering Level III neonatal intensive care. More than 6,100 babies are born at Christiana Hospital each year. The U.S. News Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality, such as C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) rates, among other measures. “When we announced plans seven years ago to build the ChristianaCare Center for Women’s & Children’s Health, we affirmed our commitment to provide superior-quality care for women and infants in our region,” said Matthew Hoffman, M.D., MPH, FACOG, Marie E. Pinizzotto, M.D., Endowed Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at ChristianaCare. “This prestigious recognition is an affirmation that patients who choose to give birth at ChristianaCare will have access to the very best services and expertise to ensure a safe delivery and a healthy baby.” Just two years ago ChristianaCare opened the Center for Women’s & Children’s Health, an eight-story, approximately 400,000-square-foot tower at Christiana Hospital. The center uses the most up-to-date, evidence-based models of care, with improved integration of services and the space to offer innovative patient-centered care for mothers, babies and families. One of the most significant features of the new center is a state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), featuring private rooms with sleep-in space for families. Christiana Hospital is one of the only hospitals in the United States to provide “couplet care” in the NICU, keeping the mother and baby together even if they both require medical care. This is based on a European model demonstrating that moms are more likely to breastfeed in this environment, which is particularly important in the early development of children. “We best achieve optimal health and flourish when we are able to begin our lives as healthy newborns,” said David Paul, M.D., chair of ChristianaCare’s Department of Pediatrics. “Building this transformative women’s and children’s hospital was a way to invest in the future of our community’s children. In addition to our outstanding caregivers and the care we provide within the walls of the hospital, this facility is a monumental step forward in enabling us to care for moms and babies, and we are delighted that U.S. News has recognized what a special place it is.” Other innovative features at the center include: Expanded labor and delivery suites. Private rooms for mothers and families after delivery. A spacious, multi-level Ronald McDonald Family Room to support families with infants who are in intensive care. Expanded OB/GYN emergency services area and new labor lounge. Separate admitting and discharge areas for the convenience of our patients. A tranquil family rooftop garden that provides spaces for play and relaxation. Vibrant sibling play spaces with interactive displays and artwork, and open community spaces for health education and programs. U.S. News’ annual evaluation is designed to assist expectant parents and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity care. U.S. News evaluated nearly 650 hospitals that provide high-quality labor and delivery services for uncomplicated pregnancies for its 2022-2023 Best Hospitals for Maternity Care. Fewer than half of all hospitals that offer maternity care and participated in the survey received a High Performing designation. “When expectant parents are considering their options for welcoming a baby to the world, the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care are designed to help them identify hospitals that excel in delivering babies for uncomplicated pregnancies,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News & World Report. “A hospital that has earned a High Performing designation may be a good option for parents, in consultation with their medical provider, to consider.” Excellence in Maternity Care Built on Experience and Research ChristianaCare’s Center for Women’s & Children’s Health includes Delaware’s most experienced maternity team, and it is also a significant research institution. Since opening, the Center for Women’s & Children’s Health participated in a significant study that found that treating mild chronic hypertension with medications is beneficial and safe for mother and baby. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the world’s foremost medical journal, the study has the potential to change the standard of care for some pregnant women, as it represented the first time that comprehensive, evidence-based data showed the benefits of treating mild forms of chronic hypertension during pregnancy. “Our commitment to research is a path to better caring for our community,” said Dr. Hoffman, a co-author in the study. About ChristianaCare Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,299 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute. ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as the 2nd best health system for diversity and inclusion, and the 29th best health system to work for in the United States, and by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is rated by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals and continually ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek and other national quality ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.
Researcher to build fuel database to improve nuclear reactor sustainability
Braden Goddard, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) to create a database for use in nuclear material control of pebble bed reactors (PBR). Advances in material science and technology have revitalized the nuclear energy industry, allowing for the design and construction of advanced nuclear reactors. New high-temperature materials developed by researchers allow ideas from as early as 1970, like pebble bed reactors, to be re-explored and make nuclear power more efficient and sustainable. Pebble bed reactors are one of many ideas from as early as 1970 that researchers are once again exploring to make nuclear power more efficient and sustainable now that science has developed new high-temperature materials. “Imagine a gumball machine,” said Goddard, “A pebble bed reactor functions similarly. The pebbles are the gumballs, which are fed into a reservoir. As they make their way through the reactor, heat generated from the radiation is removed by a gas which then spins an electrical turbine to generate electricity. The pebbles then exit from the bottom of the reservoir and those that can be reused are returned to the top of the reservoir.” Each pebble contains thousands of microscopic uranium particles encased in silicon-carbide cladding. As the pebble passes through the PBR, the path it follows affects how much fissioning occurs within the uranium. This means pebbles deplete at different rates based on how they travel through the reactor. Goddard’s database seeks to characterize the state of a pebble after it leaves the PBR by determining precisely how much plutonium and uranium remains in the pebble. This informs PBR operators if the pebble can be reused or if it needs to be sent off as waste. Better characterizing these pebbles improves the sustainability and security of PBRs while reducing the amount of waste generated. Measuring gamma radiation from the radioactive isotope cesium-137 created from the fission of uranium is the traditional method of determining how much nuclear fuel is still viable. However, this system does not work for PBRs because the correlation between the uranium fuel and the gamma radiation it emits is not consistent between pebbles. To remedy this, Goddard will measure both gamma and neutron radiation emitted by all radioactive isotopes in the pebble, which varies depending on the route the pebble takes through the reactor. Partners like Brookhaven National Laboratory and similar institutions within the United States will assist in the research by applying machine learning techniques to the gamma and neutron radiation signature. “Nuclear reactor operators have instruments that tell them what’s going on inside the reactor, but it’s not the same as knowing how much uranium mass you have in fuel going into or coming out of the reactor,” said Goddard. Goddard and his colleague, Zeyun Wu, Ph.D., will use computer modeling to run countless simulations and map every possible course a pebble can take through a PBR. The resulting catalog of data will allow PBR operators to characterize the state of any pebble leaving the PBR and assess if it can be reused or if it is ready to be stored at a nuclear waste facility. The catalog also serves as a material inventory, allowing nuclear facilities to better track waste material.
