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Closing Gaps in Health and Care
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  • three nurses looking at papers

    UIC Nursing program now available in six campuses across Illinois (video)

    Apr 18, 2023 12:45 pm

    From its roots in Chicago, the UIC College of Nursing is now educating nurse leaders in five additional cities throughout Northern and Central Illinois, including Urbana.

  • woman working at desk inside clinic

    UIC Nursing clinic improves sexual health in LGBTQ+ community

    Jan 21, 2022 3:00 pm

    One year after opening, a UIC College of Nursing and UI Health clinic based at Center on Halsted has brought HIV prevention and STI treatment services to more than 100 of the center’s LGBTQ+ community members.

  • UI Health Mile Square Health Center at Wood and Roosevelt in Chicago, Illinois.

    UIC, Mile Square join national trial of blood test for multi-cancer screening

    Oct 30, 2023 9:45 am

    The University of Illinois Chicago will be the first site in the state to participate in a national study of a clinical test that screens for a shared cancer signal in a sample of patient blood. The test screens for a signal shared by more than 50 types of cancers, including pancreatic and blood cancers which do not currently have recommended screening tests and often go undetected until later stages.

  • A nurse and a doctor hand a face mask to a child, outside.

    UIC medical students, doctors form Mobile Migrant Health Team

    Aug 7, 2023 2:15 pm

    Since the first week of May, more than 3,000 migrants have received medical attention from the UIC student-driven group, which has volunteered at nearly a dozen Chicago police stations where migrants are being sheltered.

  • monarch butterfly on flower

    UIC leads largest nationwide effort to protect the monarch butterfly

    May 5, 2020 9:45 am

    Since 2017, the University of Illinois at Chicago has partnered with more than 45 energy companies and transportation agencies to develop the first nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances to engage in important conservation actions to protect the monarch butterfly.

  • A diverse group of enthusiastic students collaborate outside around a laptop with a University of Illinois Chicago sticker on the lid

    UIC grant will increase public health ‘boots on the ground’ in underserved areas

    Nov 4, 2022 9:45 am

    Health disparities prompted the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to award the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health $1.5 million in scholarship funds from the American Rescue Plan. 

  • A close-up picture of a human eye

    UIC-developed compound could replace injections with eyedrops

    Oct 16, 2023 10:15 am

    A new paper in Cell Reports Medicine led by UIC researcher Yulia Komarova finds that a small-molecule inhibitor can reverse damage from age-related macular degeneration and promote regenerative and healing processes.  

  • Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda with the UIC College of Dentistry team at the Pilsen Center for Oral Health Promotion opening.

    UIC College of Dentistry opens Pilsen Center for Oral Health Promotion

    Oct 2, 2023 10:00 am

    The new center will provide community-based oral health care and educate dental students. The space has three dental chairs, two rooms for patient education, and an area in which dental students and students from other UIC health sciences colleges will provide group health education for patients.

  • two small children receiving dental care from a dentist

    UIC College of Dentistry hosts annual Give Kids a Smile Day

    Feb 19, 2025 10:15 am

    The UIC College of Dentistry hosted its annual Give Kids a Smile Day as part of a national initiative aimed at ensuring access to quality oral health care for all children. This year’s event welcomed more than 100 children for a day of free oral health screenings, oral health care education and face painting.

  • UIC leaders cut a red ribbon in front of building

    UIC celebrates new 55th & Pulaski Health Collaborative

    Jun 9, 2022 8:45 am

    Leaders from the University of Illinois Chicago and the 55th & Pulaski Health Collaborative celebrated the opening of its comprehensive clinical care center in Chicago’s Gage Park and West Elsdon communities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 20. 

  • The Percival Bailey Brain Collection, located in UIC’s Neuropsychiatric Institute.

    UIC brain bank leads citywide effort to study epilepsy, brain cancer

    Nov 27, 2023 11:15 am

    A new virtual brain bank spanning five Chicago academic medical centers and led by University of Illinois Chicago will create a powerful new resource for clinical care and research on epilepsy, brain tumors and neurological disorders.

  • HUD presents check to UIC

    Two projects to help communities with lead-elimination

    Oct 16, 2019 2:45 pm

    UIC received $1.7 million in research funding from HUD to study lead and other household health hazards. The funds will support two different projects in Illinois communities. More...

  • firefighter

    Training community firefighters

    Aug 19, 2019 1:00 pm

    As the statutory fire academy for Illinois, the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) serves firefighters throughout Illinois and beyond with coursework and hands-on training at regional centers throughout the state. More...

  • Sarah Isaacs, the librarian of the Early Intervention Clearinghouse, and research information specialist Jill Tompkins show some of the tablet computers and Wi-Fi hotspots available for loan

    Technology loan program helps families

    Dec 18, 2020 9:30 am

    A technology loan program provided by the Illinois Early Intervention Clearinghouse at UIUC is helping many families across the state obtain the equipment they need to participate in live video – or telehealth – visits with their children’s therapists.

  • professor Kai Zhang

    Technique helps bring cell powerhouses back into balance

    Aug 4, 2022 1:00 pm

    Researchers at UIUC developed a technique using light to regulate mitochondria. The technique could be used as a treatment for cancer and other diseases.

  • two female researchers in lab

    Team identifies compound with potent antiseizure effects

    Mar 23, 2022 9:45 am

    UIUC researchers studying epileptic seizures of the temporal lobe – the most common type of epilepsy – discovered a compound that reduces seizures in the hippocampus, a brain region where many such seizures originate.

  • Allen Barton posing leaning on a railing

    Study links insulin resistance, advanced cell aging with childhood poverty

    Jul 28, 2022 1:45 pm

    Black adolescents who lived in poverty as children and were pessimistic about their future had accelerated immune cell aging and greater levels of insulin resistance in their mid- to late twenties, according to a study by Allen W. Barton, a UIUC professor of human development and family studies.

  • child drawing with crayons

    Studying access to early childhood education in Illinois

    Feb 10, 2020 2:45 pm

    UIC researchers, supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will examine feedback from families who are living with the effects of their child’s expulsion. More...

  • Saliva samples are being tested in a lab

    Study from UIC: COVID virus evolves more rapidly in central nervous system

    Sep 10, 2024 3:15 pm

    The coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic evolves more rapidly in the brain than in the lungs, according to new research from University of Illinois Chicago and Northwestern University. New variants created in the brain and other parts of the nervous system could also travel back to the lungs, where they could become transmissible and spread new, dangerous variants of the virus.

  • Professor Keith Jaronsinski in front of block I banner

    Study explores unusual interaction between viruses, live vaccines

    Jul 15, 2022 10:45 am

    A study of a herpes virus that infects chickens offers new insights into potentially problematic interactions between vaccines made from live viruses and the viruses they are meant to thwart.

  • Professor Brian Monson in a soundproof room

    Study compares third-trimester sound exposures in fetuses, premature infants

    Mar 13, 2023 2:30 pm

    The study is the first to compare sound exposures of fetuses in the last 16 weeks of pregnancy with their age-matched premature peers. The analysis reveals profound differences in their exposures to noise, language, and the biological sounds of the mother, with implications for the infants’ development.

  • COVID test processing in lab

    State invests big in COVID tests for schools

    May 12, 2021 6:00 pm

    In an effort to ensure in-person learning can fully resume as quickly and safely as possible, the Illinois Department of Public Health today announced a $225 million investment to expand access to covidSHIELD saliva-based testing, developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to middle and high schools across the state at low or no cost. 

  • An audio waveform on a computer screen

    Speech Accessibility Project aims to make voice recognition tech more useful

    Aug 29, 2023 2:15 pm

    Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on a critical project to help make voice recognition technology more useful for people with a wide range of speech patterns and disabilities, and they're seeking participants to assist their work.

  • exterior of the UI Health Specialty Care Building

    Specialty Care Building at UI Health opening up access to care, jobs

    Sep 20, 2022 1:00 pm

    The newest clinical building on the University of Illinois Chicago’s health sciences campus will open to patients Sept. 26. Leadership from UIC and its health system, UI Health, marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting event outside the $194 million building Sept. 14. 

  • UI Health staff outside clinic

    South Shore clinic expands COVID-19 testing

    May 5, 2020 10:15 am

    UI Health Mile Square Health Center — a network of federally qualified health centers, or FQHCs, in Chicago — is now providing COVID-19 testing to community members on the South Side who meet testing criteria at its South Shore clinic, located at 7037 S. Stony Island Ave.

  • hand holding mobile phone

    SMS intervention for Type 2 diabetes in underserved communities

    Apr 7, 2022 10:00 am

    A team of UIC experts in Rockford, Illinois, will launch and study a text message-based intervention for Type 2 diabetes in underserved communities, thanks to a $30,000 grant award from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois’ Dr. Louis and Violet Rubin Fund.  

  • Martin Burke and Stella Ekaputri in office

    Small molecule transports iron in mice, human cells to treat some forms of anemia

    Jul 22, 2022 9:45 am

    UIUC researchers were part of a team that found a small molecule, hinokitiol, ferries iron out of liver cells lacking the protein that normally does the job and restores hemoglobin and red blood cell production.  

  • inside view of a coal mine

    Silica exposure is a driving force behind rising rates of black lung disease

    Apr 18, 2022 3:30 pm

    Silica exposure is a driving force behind rising rates of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, according to a new study published by occupational health experts at the University of Illinois Chicago and their collaborators.

  • Downtown Chicago

    SHIELD Illinois opens two additional free COVID testing sites in Chicago

    May 26, 2022 8:00 am

    SHIELD Illinois opened two additional free community testing sites in Chicago this month, bringing its total number of locations statewide to 44. These newly opened community sites increase access to COVID testing in underserved communities. 

  • woman assisting another in a vaccine clinic

    SHIELD CU helping raise vaccination rates among people of color

    Jun 16, 2021 9:00 am

    The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's SHIELD CU team is partnering with local organizations to help boost COVID-19 vaccine rates in Champaign County's community of color.

  • red spiky ball rendering of COVID molecule

    Sampling sewer water for COVID-19 in the C-U community

    Aug 9, 2021 11:45 am

    Illinois State Water Survey researchers have been sampling sewer water to look for traces of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at the neighborhood level in Champaign-Urbana to help monitor the spread of the disease.

  • Scientists in the lab in white coats processing samples

    Saliva test being expanded in Champaign-Urbana community

    Mar 24, 2021 10:15 am

    OSF HealthCare announced a new partnership with the University of Illinois Tuesday that will expand the U of I’s saliva-based COVID-19 test into the broader Champaign-Urbana community.

  • The front of a UICOMP building in Peoria

    Rural Student Physician Program aims to attract doctors to underserved areas

    Feb 6, 2023 11:30 am

    The decline of professionals practicing medicine in rural America isn't a new one, and rural hospitals around Illinois and the nation are eliminating services or closing altogether amid staffing and financial difficulties. The Rural Student Physician Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria is working to solve this problem.

  • Portrait of Hana Hinkle, College of Medicine Rockford director, on rural background

    Rural health education center in Illinois gains $6.5M

    Oct 10, 2022 8:00 am

    The National Center for Rural Health Professions at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine Rockford will receive nearly $6.5 million over the next five years to fund the Illinois Area Health Education Centers Network program.

  • Prof. Xue-Jun LI poses in medical lab

    Rockford professors on cutting edge with Parkinson's research

    Mar 8, 2022 9:45 am

    Researchers at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford have discovered what they describe as promising results in their search for a treatment to stop nerve cell degeneration that occurs in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and hereditary spastic paraplegia.

  • masked diverse students sitting around table with fliers

    Researchers to combat systemic racism in access to nature

    Nov 19, 2021 10:00 am

    Researchers from the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism in the College of Applied Health Sciences at UIUC plan to give a formal evaluation of efforts by the Urbana Park District to increase acceess to nature and recreation opportunites among diverse residents.

  • Man with handlebar mustache in office with test tubes

    Researchers identify biomarker for depression

    Jan 5, 2022 1:30 pm

    Researchers led by Mark Rasenick, University of Illinois Chicago distinguished professor of physiology and biophysics and psychiatry, have identified a biomarker in human platelets that tracks the extent of depression.

  • A nursing students talks with a nurse educator.

    Real Impact: Robust program turns out nurses willing to answer the call

    Mar 11, 2024 3:15 pm

    The University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing trains healthcare experts at all three University of Illinois System universities. The program in Springfield is the newest with students gaining in-depth, hands-on experience at Springfield Memorial Hospital.

  • Four young women practice CPR on female and Black and brown mannequins

    Real Impact: Heart-focused agency advances neighbor helping neighbor

    Mar 21, 2023 10:00 am

    When the five-year grant that launched Illinois Heart Rescue in 2012 expired, the State of Illinois recognized the results-driven program’s impact and took over funding. The University of Illinois System again is advocating for the program’s funding as part of its annual state budget request. 

  • Illinois State University associate professor of creative technologies Roy Magnuson using a VR device, with light trails added to show motion

    Real Impact: Grants fund life-saving training with an innovative tech twist

    Apr 29, 2024 12:30 pm

    Stopping an overdose using naloxone requires quick action in tough situations. “With VENT, we’re creating training that mimics hectic moments so people can feel prepared,” said Scott Barrows, University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria clinical assistant professor.

  • Liliane Windsor in coat and scarf outdoors

    Project helps East St. Louis residents overcome barriers to COVID-19 testing, vaccination

    Mar 23, 2022 9:30 am

    A project co-led by UIUC that is underway in East St. Louis, Illinois, is investigating strategies for overcoming barriers to COVID-19 testing and vaccination among more than 548 medically and socially vulnerable residents of St. Clair County.

  • Male medical student with Peoria in backdrop

    Program helps fill need for rural doctors

    Sep 1, 2022 3:30 pm

    Programs at University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford and University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria are part of the Rural Illinois Medical Student Assistance Program, to help fill the need for rural doctors in Illinois.

  • UIS child protection training academy simulation house

    Preventing child fatalities and training the workforce

    Feb 10, 2021 1:45 pm

    The UIS Child Protection Training Academy has trained close to 1,000 DCFS child protection investigators over the last five years. The model has been expanded to Chicago and will soon be replicated at Southern Illinois University.

  • smiling adult male with arm around smiling adult female

    Preparing youth with disabilities for adulthood

    Nov 30, 2021 12:15 pm

    The UIC Division of Specialized Care for Children sponsors an annual conference to help prepare Illinois families for the transition of their children with special health needs to adulthood.

  • female student in cap and gown on UIUC campus

    Preparing students for medical careers through human nutrition program

    Nov 17, 2021 9:15 am

    Lauren Moy forged her path to the UIC College of Pharmacy by way of an undergraduate human nutrition concentration at the College of ACES at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

  • masked man in car rearview mirror awaiting testing

    Pop-up testing clinics for Rantoul ag workers

    Dec 2, 2020 1:30 pm

    An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is working with clinicians and community researchers to expand access to COVID-19 testing by providing pop-up testing clinics for agricultural workers and others at various locations in Rantoul, Illinois.

  • Dr. Lauren Forsythe holds Duchess the cat, and Dr. Alex Gochenauer holds Loki the corgi in the Illinois Veterinary Hospital Medication Dispensary

    Pawsitively Collaborative: A new partnership in veterinary pharmacy

    Dec 9, 2022 3:00 pm

    A new veterinary pharmacy residency program serves as an example of the collaborations that unite University of Illinois System entities around advancing health and other missions.

  • shadow of adults holding hands with child in the city

    OSF & UIC award Community Health Advocacy grants

    Feb 2, 2022 9:30 am

    OSF HealthCare is partnering with UIC to award eight grants totaling more than $700,000 to support projects that remove barriers to care, particularly in low-income, under-resourced communities; enhance health and wellness education, and leverage technology to improve training and community outreach.

  • Three professional women sitting at table

    Oncology dietitians rarely ask cancer patients about food insecurity, study finds

    Feb 14, 2022 3:15 pm

    Although studies suggest that many cancer patients experience food insecurity, few oncology dietitians routinely ask them if they are having problems affording or obtaining food, new UIUC research has found.

  • Dr. Erin Hickey, center, talks with patient Isaiah Menchaca and his mom, Josephine Alvarez, during a visit to the UI Health Lifespan Disability Clinic. (Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC)

    New UIC clinic, training program aim to improve care for people with disabilities

    Aug 19, 2024 1:15 pm

    A new UI Health clinic and physician training program are designed to create welcoming spaces and lead to better health outcomes for patients with disabilities. At UI Health’s Lifespan Disability Clinic, patients with disabilities can access a wide range of practitioners — from physicians to occupational therapists to physical therapists — under one roof.