Horizons Fall 2015

16 NSU HORIZONS “Project CHOICES is one of the most highly recognized interventions in the world,” said Ken Johnson, D.O., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Public Health at NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. Johnson was a coinvestigator, along with primary investigators Mark and Linda Sobell of NSU’s College of Psychology. The Sobells were integral in working with the CDC as part of the Project CHOICES Intervention Development Team, which developed and wrote a client workbook, counselor manual, and facilitator guide. They are also coauthors on a book published this summer on prevent- ing alcohol-exposed pregnancies. Johnson’s involvement as a gynecologist in the Project CHOICES study became a model of interdisciplinary research at NSU and was instrumental in it making its way into medical settings. “Some of the research was utilized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to produce a tool box for physicians to better educate them about ways to reduce Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in their patients,” said John- son. “The research overall requires minimal interventions where women are encouraged not to drink if they may become pregnant. And because it is minimal intervention, it’s repro- ducible anywhere.” The online app, available for download on the CDC website, and which Johnson said is credited to the researchers, features a data tracking and monitoring system. Additionally, a specialty publication aimed at Native Amer- icans using the Project CHOICES information is being distributed, said Johnson who has been studying the Native American population because of access to South Florida’s population of Seminole and Miccosukee tribes. “This is research that came out of NSU that just keeps on giving,” said Johnson. “It continues to expand and be utilized globally, which gives NSU extreme credibility locally, nationally, and certainly, internationally.” On another front, statistics emanating from NSU’s Center for Applied Research on Substance Abuse and Health Dis- parities (ARSH), part of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, are making a difference locally and nationally in helping substance-abuse prevention coalitions, health professionals, and law enforcement track trends and institute treatment plans in the area of drug abuse. Data compiled by James N. Hall, senior epidemiologist with the center, create statistics from data collection that identify drug trends and prevalence of certain drugs. They also provide detailed sta- tistics on drug abuse, hospitalizations, and deaths. “Data are gathered from the medical examiner’s department, addiction treatment centers, crime labs, hospitalization reports, and various surveys, which track the prevalence of substance use in youth as well as the general population,” said Hall. During his career, Hall has focused on converting research about emerging drug abuse problems into community-based solutions. “The role of surveillance epidemiology is to convert research to information for action. That is why it is important to have a wide variety of community partners to whom we can disseminate what we’ve learned about the nature and extent of the problem, particularly to identify the root causes. David Mastropietro, left, is among NSU College of Pharmacy researchers creating a dosage formulation that will make some prescription medications resistant to crushing or liquefying.