UM Lands $1.8 Million Grant, Hopes To Improve Health Care For Children In Montana

The School of Public and Community Health Sciences at the University of Montana recently was awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. UM Faculty Affiliate Dr. Paul Smith explains what the grant will be used for.

“Much of that funding will go to establishing a center,” said Smith. “It will involve having a data analyst, an epidemiologist, and then a cohort of nurses throughout the state that will help us recruit and gather data on children from northern, as well as southern, Montana into Wyoming.”

Smith says they hope to accomplish many things with this new funding, but there is one goal in particular he would like to achieve.

“The biggest hope is that we are able to provide increased health care and improved health care for the children of Montana,” Smith said. “Our more midterm goal is to establish a center that allows them to be involved in multicenter studies. Our more immediate goal is to start collaborating with other centers that have ongoing studies.”

Smith says he hopes to open up collaboration with other centers in the United States by next month.