TAMIU Annual Report 2022

UNIVERSITY FACULTY Some 50 students from TAMIU and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley spent time this summer learning more about public health informatics during the GET PHIT Summer Bootcamp held at TAMIU. Some 50 students from TAMIU and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley spent time learning about public health informatics during the “GET PHIT Summer Bootcamp.”  Known as the Gaining Equity in Training for Public Health Informatics and Technology (GET PHIT), the two-week camp took place in July at TAMIU. The GET PHIT Summer Bootcamp focused on understanding how data collection for public health research, the characteristics of typical datasets utilized for public health informatics, commonly used sources of secondary data in public health, and standards and technologies used for data analysis.   Students also prepared a conference-style poster and a 10-minute presentation delivered to peers and local community health leaders.  Top-performing students qualified for paid internships with various health agencies, including the City of Laredo Health Department, Gateway Community Health, Mercy Ministries, PILLAR, and SCAN. This summer’s winning group for the data-driven presentation were Samira García, Alejandro Luna, Jr., Patricia Martínez, Samantha Molina, and Lisa Rodríguez.  The Summer Bootcamp featured the support of Dr. Cindy L. Salazar-Collier, TAMIU assistant professor of Public Health; Dr. Susan Fenton of UTHealth-Houston; Dr. Virginia Berndt , TAMIU assistant professor of Sociology, and Dr. John Kilburn, TAMIU associate vice president for Research and Sponsored Projects and professor of Sociology. The GET PHIT Consortium aims to train 1,400 students predominantly from underrepresented groups and 500 public health, clinic, and academic professionals while placing 400 students in internships.  Additional information on the Summer Bootcamp is available at https://www.uth.edu/get-phit/ ‘GET PHIT’ SUMMER BOOTCAMP  HIGHLIGHTS PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATICS 17