Improving health equity and healthcare access requires collaboration that aligns diverse perspectives and expertise. Since its founding in 1878, Creighton has prioritized community engagement, working to ensure our shared home is a healthier place to live and work for everyone.
The Institute for Population Health (IPH) sits at the intersection of these efforts, aligning and supporting initiatives across the University that engage communities in meaningful, sustained ways. As an embodiment of Creighton’s mission, IPH builds authentic, trusted partnerships to help improve health outcomes in the communities we serve.
The IPH CAREs (Core for Applied Research and Evaluations) unit serves as a centralized hub for applied research and evaluation, meeting the need for rigorous, real-world evidence across Creighton, its health system partners and the community. The unit supports its partners through study design, advanced analysis, proposal development and measurement strategy, while fostering community-engaged research, stakeholder collaboration and the translation of findings into practice.
To address the many factors that impact individual and collective health, IPH works with community partners and health systems, as well as stakeholders like healthcare providers, policymakers, educators, business leaders and clergy. These efforts help us promote healthy behavior, improve access to primary and preventive care, and reduce health disparities.
IPH co-leads a grant with the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice. Alongside community partners, this work focuses on implementing and evaluating the AAMC’s Principles of Trustworthiness toolkit to strengthen community trust in health systems.
IPH Executive Director Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, serves on the statewide quality measures group for ALIGN Nebraska’s Maternal Child Health project. This initiative works to improve prenatal care access, reduce preterm births and other maternal and neonatal complications, and strengthen ongoing quality improvement efforts within healthcare clinics.
An IPH team member serves on the Nebraska Maternal Health Task Force, which assesses maternal care and coverage across the state, identifies gaps in service delivery, and supports the development and implementation of a statewide maternal health strategy. The task force is organized by I Be Black Girl with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
IPH partners with CommonSpirit Health to provide implementation and evaluation support for its community health worker programs and maternity care doulas. IPH also provides implementation support for the organization’s screening programs. IPH Executive Director Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, serves on the CommonSpirit Health national Optimizing Clinical Care Subcommittee and the CHI Value-Based Team Care Board.
To celebrate strength and success across Nebraska rural healthcare, IPH supports the Nebraska Rural Health Association’s I Love Rural Health campaign. We participate in efforts such as the ROOTS student housing program in McCook, Nebraska, which is designed to address housing challenges and workforce retention to strengthen and sustain rural healthcare in southwest Nebraska.
Find support or connect with IPH to form a new partnership. Together, we can make a difference in health equity. Contact the Institute for Population Health.
