This application for a Health Services Research Enhancement project aims to strengthen and expand the capacity and infrastructural facilities at the Institute for Urban Research (IUR) and Public Health Program (PHP) at Morgan State University to conduct rigorous health services research. The proposed interdisciplinary research activities, during the three-year funding period, will focus on selected health services issues in such areas as teenage pregnancy, maternal and child health, school health programs, reproductive health, breast-feeding, and other health and demographic issues. The proposed protect activities will encompass five specific aims: (1) to strengthen and expand some on-going health services research activities at IUR and at PHP; (2) to initiate and conduct new faculty small research projects in selected health services areas; (3) to strengthen and expand on-going research assistant ships and internships for students and to increase the small pool of African American researchers trained in health services research; (4) to strengthen existing research facilities and resources at the IUR and PHP by: updating their computing facilities and by establishing a new health services and research library; and (5) to develop a leadership role in African-American health services research at the local, state, and national levels. The application describes existing research facilities, staff, gaps in research facilities, and the evolution of its health services research. The application then describes aims, objectives, and methods of three new health services research projects that will be conducted during the 3-year funding period. All these three research protects will focus on health services research issues disproportionately affecting African Americans in inner-city Baltimore and its surrounding areas by utilizing the core research facilities that will be established or strengthened at the IUR and at the PHP under the proposed Health Services Research Enhancement Program.
