Overview

Obesity is at an all-time record high. Almost half of all American adults have at least one chronic illness. One out of five adults still smokes cigarettes. And millions of dollars are spent every year on unproven and even hazardous health practices and inefficient or unnecessary health care.

Despite a barrage of expert advice, good health remains elusive for many. Health needs are diverse, complex, evolving, and society continues to struggle with a fundamental question: What really works? The Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC) developed this Scholarly Concentration Application to have medical students study this question through the lens of prevention research and related scientific fields.

SPRC, a division within the Department of Medicine, is a consortium of internationally renowned experts combining epidemiologic study with intervention research centering on disease prevention and health promotion. SPRC’s mission is to improve individual and population health through innovative and effective health promotion and chronic disease prevention and management strategies. SPRC’s advances center on science-based solutions for addressing some of society’s most pervasive and preventable health issues - such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and tobacco addiction - and to raise the standards of scientific investigation that matter for health. 

Since 1972, SPRC has set the standard for scientific analysis, applying cutting-edge technology to shed light on the multi-level influences (cell-to-society) on behavior, health, and disease.  SPRC’s researchers come from diverse disciplines and design scientifically grounded multidisciplinary studies to evaluate medical data and to apply innovative tools to implement change. They have established long-standing partnerships with local communities to assess and track at-risk populations, analyze multiple factors, and design health interventions that really work. Their work also addresses far-reaching global concerns, including population studies and ways to diminish inequalities within and across communities.

Created by SPRC, this Scholarly Concentration Application is designed to address the educational need in the area of chronic disease prevention. In this Application area, PR students will learn about the research, theory, and practice of chronic disease prevention in diverse settings and become better equipped to lead future investigations in the field of prevention research.