The Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University is partnering with the Central Falls School Department, Progresso Latino, and new awardee Project GOAL on pilot projects testing ways to tackle health and learning disparities in Central Falls.

With the generous support of the Hassenfeld family, we have been able to recruit Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH to join the leadership of the Institute.

Researchers with the Hassenfeld Institute are gearing up to resume in-person recruitment for their autism study after a lengthy hiatus due to COVID-19.

The Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island are participating in a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health to improve gestational diabetes screening and diagnosis by better understanding blood glucose levels throughout pregnancy.

The Healthy Weight Initiative is preparing to launch a study that will examine how early markers of self-regulation, which have been found to be related to weight gain in older children, relate to infant growth.

COVID Collaborative, Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center, Brown's School of Public Health, and New America launched the Infection Prevention and Control and Schools Task Force to produce a set of resources to support schools and districts in implementing CDC guidance and getting students and staff safely back for in-person learning.

The Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute has announced the winners of this year’s Child Health Innovation Awards, which support projects that improve the health of children and their families in Rhode Island.

When cases of COVID-19 surged in spring 2020, recruiting for the Hassenfeld Institute’s prospective birth cohort — which is typically done in person in providers’ offices and at Women & Infants Hospital — was temporarily halted. But the work didn’t stop for the Institute’s team of research assistants.

When state and local agencies need a partner to assist with sophisticated evaluation of public health programs, they often turn to the Hassenfeld Institute’s Data Core for help. While the Data Core provides research support for projects within the Institute, they also collaborate extensively with state and local partners on a myriad of programs.

How do we engage children who struggle with overweight and obesity and their families in physical activity and healthy eating in the midst of a pandemic?

When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to shut down and businesses to send employees home in March, the Hassenfeld Institute’s Asthma Initiative team knew they had to act quickly to continue to provide services to children with asthma and their families.

"Outer Space," a punk song written and recorded by the Autism Initiative's Daniel Moreno De Luca, MD, MSc, was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), along with an essay, which Dr. Moreno De Luca says emphasizes "the humanity of not only the kiddos and adults with autism we see, but also of the clinicians." Read the essay and listen to the song.

The works of dozens of artists with autism makes up the fourth-annual Through Our Eyes exhibit, an art show organized by the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment and held at the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the City of Providence’s Healthy Communities Office (HCO) will each receive $10,000 to support programs that will improve the health of children in Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank has awarded The Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University their 2019 Guy Abelson Food Bank Leadership Award for their efforts on the 2019 Hunger Survey.

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank partnered with the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University on a statewide survey identifying demographic details of households impacted by hunger in Rhode Island.

An excerpt from Providence Journal staff writer G. Wayne Miller’s book, “Kid Number One: A story of heart, soul and business, featuring Alan Hassenfeld and Hasbro,” looks at Hassenfeld's relationship with philanthropy and the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute.

People are suffering now, in Rhode Island as across the nation, according to Gregory Wellenius, director of the Brown University Center for Environmental Health and Technology, associate professor of epidemiology at Brown's School of Public Health, and a contributing author to the landmark Fourth National Climate Assessment, which warns that “human health and safety … in communities across the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change."

About 35 percent of children in Rhode Island are obese or overweight, according to a new report from Rhode Island Kids Count. The report, released Friday, reflects the findings of a two-year collaboration with the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute.

The lead poisoning research and prevention efforts of Patrick M.Vivier, Hassenfeld Institute’s director and executive committee member, are recognized in this Providence Journal article. Further, maps created by HCHII, depicting levels of lead positioning in old housing and poverty in RI from 2006 to 2016 were referenced to illustrate problem areas.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — New data from a long-term study of 355 mothers and their children found that fixing peeling paint and removing other household sources of lead during the mother’s pregnancy can reduce levels of dust lead in homes to levels significantly lower than previously deemed achievable.

“There is no safe level of lead,” said Joseph Braun, associate professor of epidemiology at Brown University’s School of Public Health and lead author on the study. “We were able to achieve dust lead levels considerably lower than the current EPA standards for lead remediation and at levels where far fewer children are at risk of being lead-poisoned in their homes.”