Welcome

Linking Science
to Practice

Welcome Page

Thank you for visiting the website for the Division of Prevention and Population Sciences (DPPS), New Mexico’s Prevention Research Center. We are proud to be one of the CDC’s 33 Prevention Research Centers, and are recognized as a Center of Excellence. We are a part of the University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center, Department of Pediatrics, located in Albuquerque.

Our Mission

The mission of the PRC is to address the health promotion and disease prevention needs of New Mexican communities through participatory, science-based, health promotion and disease prevention research. We fulfill this mission through collaboration, training, dissemination and evaluation activities.

Community Partnerships

Because of our ties to New Mexico’s communities, the PRC is uniquely situated to design and introduce prevention strategies that are tailored to New Mexico citizens. By working together with local attitudes, values and beliefs, and by making the most of community resources, we simultaneously address multiple health risk factors.

Our Research Priorities

Our research agenda is designed to focus on community needs and to create a structure for engaging the community. The priority areas for PRC research include:

Nutrition, physical activity and obesity prevention
Adolescent and school health
Tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse prevention
Dissemination research and translation of research findings into usable formats

These priority areas emphasize the chronic diseases and conditions that have the greatest total effect on health, longevity and quality of life of New Mexicans. Addressing these areas is crucial for achieving the long term goal of eliminating health disparities in New Mexico communities.

UNM Health Sciences Center Mission
The mission of the UNM Health Sciences Center is to provide added value to health care through leadership in:

providing innovative, collaborative education;
advancing the frontiers of science through research critical to the future of health care;
delivering health care services that are at the forefront of science; and
facilitating partnerships with public and private biomedical and health enterprises.

The PRC fulfills the HSC mission through our innovate education and research programs to improve the health of New Mexico’s citizenry, and through our numerous partnerships with communities, organizations, professionals and individuals around the state and around the country.

What is Prevention Research?
Individual behaviors and environmental factors cause many chronic diseases – such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes – as well as injuries and some infections. Prevention researchers develop strategies to help people reduce risk factors in their lives and their communities. By involving community members, academic researchers, and public health agencies, the PRC finds innovative ways to promote health and prevent disease. Together with our partners, we design, test and disseminate strategies – often as new policies or recommended public health practices.

Our Community Advisory Council (CAC) provides the link between the university setting and New Mexico’s citizenry. This link helps insure that our research is sensitive to cultural distinctions, acceptable to participants, and likely to be sustained – characteristics that contribute to high-quality results. Our newsletter, The Connection, provides a forum for sharing information with our CAC.

Department of Pediatrics Office of Research & Creative Endeavors. http://hsc.unm.edu/pedsresearch/