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Closing Gaps in Health and Care

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  • Liliane Windsor in coat and scarf outdoors

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

    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.

  • inhaler

    Better outcomes for Black and Latinx asthma patients

    UIC was part of a study which found that when Black or Latinx asthma patients were instructed to use inhaled corticosteroids, their risk of severe exacerbation was reduced by 15%.

  • Scientists in the lab in white coats processing samples

    Saliva test being expanded in Champaign-Urbana community

    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.

  • close up of covid test processing in lab

    Community colleges in Illinois now have option to provide free covidSHIELD tests to state residents

    Community colleges across the state now have the ability to provide the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s (UIUC) innovative, saliva-based COVID-19 test at no cost to any state resident who wants one. 

  • teacher on zoom call with book

    Child Development Laboratory cares for children of essential, critical personnel

    Since mid-March, the staff at the CDL has stepped up to provide emergency childcare for a limited number of essential and critical personnel during the pandemic, under the state’s emergency childcare license. 

  • UI Health staff outside clinic

    South Shore clinic expands COVID-19 testing

    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.

  • Mom at computer with child at table

    UIS helping private and community colleges and state agencies transition to remote learning

    The University of Illinois Springfield Center For Online Learning, Research and Service (COLRS) is helping Illinois private and community colleges and state agencies transition to remote learning as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

  • COVID test processing in lab

    State invests big in COVID tests for schools

    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. 

  • future DPI rendering

    DPI launches new education and workforce research center

    The Discovery Partners Institute has launched a new education and workforce research center, IWERC, with $3.9 million from some of the city’s most influential philanthropists and foundations.

  • woman assisting another in a vaccine clinic

    SHIELD CU helping raise vaccination rates among people of color

    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.

  • nurse taking vitals on patient

    UIS offers free public webinar series on community health

    As part of the Springfield Innovation Hub, UIS and the Community Health Roundtable have launched a new webinar series on community health with immediate focus on the impact of COVID-19.

  • saliva testing on Urbana campus - glove with test tube

    U of I to expand COVID saliva testing nationally

    The U of I System has embarked on a broad effort to expand the reach of saliva-based testing pioneered by U of I researchers that supports widespread testing with rapid results to limit spread of the COVID-19 virus.

  • $17.5B

    Impact on the state economy

    The U of I System contributes $17.5 billion annually to the state’s economy through its research, hospital, and entrepreneurial activities, along with the universities' students and visitors, according to a recent study. More...

  • factory

    Assisting military-dependent communities

    UIC has received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment to support economic research and resiliency in Illinois’ military-connected communities. More...

  • Saliva samples are being tested in a lab

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

    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.

  • A plate of food on a table

    Women with hypertension, obesity show benefits from UIC cooking class

    Women who participated in a 12-week program called “Food is Medicine: Healing Together” say the cooking classes and nutrition seminars helped turn their health around. 

  • physicians and administrators posed in front of banner

    Collaboration to better serve pediatric patients

    Cook County Health and UI Health — the leading public health care providers in Cook County and Illinois — will collaborate on specialty pediatric services under the Partnership for Pediatric Care, a new clinical affiliation for shared services. 

  • Male professor and female grad student pose in lab

    New molecule targets, images and treats lung cancer tumors in mice

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a finely tuned molecular agent that can target lung and other cancer cells for imaging and treatment.

  • masked diverse students sitting around table with fliers

    Researchers to combat systemic racism in access to nature

    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.

  • smiling adult male with arm around smiling adult female

    Preparing youth with disabilities for adulthood

    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.

  • masked man in car rearview mirror awaiting testing

    Pop-up testing clinics for Rantoul ag workers

    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.

  • MRI machine

    UIUC, Carle partner to launch brain study

    Thanks to a collaboration between Carle and the University of Illinois, the first-of-its-kind Champaign-Urbana Population Study will be conducted to collect information about the brain’s structure and function across a diverse group of volunteers.

  • A patient receives a health examination at Humboldt Park's Mile Square Health Center. Photo courtesy of UI Health.

    UIC researchers, health care providers partner with communities to address health disparities

    The life expectancy for Black people is nearly five years shorter than for white people, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago and UI Health, the university’s academic health enterprise, want to better understand the correlations and to intervene with services that can bridge the divide.