College of Public Health Resources
Departmental Resources
The University of Iowa College of Public Health was formed from the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health and the Graduate Program in Hospital and Health Administration, both formerly based in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The founding of the UI College of Public Health blended new initiatives with long-established UI programs at The University of Iowa. The college builds on a rich tradition of public health teaching, research, and service at The University that dates back to 1885. Today, the College is composed of five departments: Biostatistics; Community and Behavioral Health; Epidemiology; Health Management and Policy; and Occupational and Environmental Health.
The College of Public Health provides an educational and research focus to the many public health efforts at The University. Specific areas of interest include: rural public health training through agricultural health research centers; statistical and data management for multicenter clinical trials research; occupational health through the Occupational Medicine Residency program; cancer and birth defects surveillance through the State Health Registry State Health Registry of Iowa and the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders, respectively; community-based participatory research; and service to public health practitioners through the Institute for Public Health Practice, annual colloquiums, and other administered projects.
The college comprises of approximately 30 research centers and has roughly 70 primary faculty. It has traditional laboratories supporting research in environmental health, occupational and recreational injuries, infectious disease, and cancer molecular epidemiology. Graduates are provided advanced training leading to master’s and doctoral degrees that prepare for leadership roles in various health care, research, and academic settings.
Building on traditions and forging new collaborative partnerships across campus, Iowa, the nation, and globally, the College of Public Health seeks to become a premier state-assisted school of public health and a leader in addressing public health challenges of the 21st Century, such as: sustainability; disease prevention; aging; injury prevention; mental health; emergency preparedness; health care quality and services; and health communications.
Office of Information Technology
The general-purpose computing facilities available to the College of Public Health are extensive. In 2002, a central collegiate server room was designed to facilitate departmental and collegiate servers, including climate controlled air, gigabit network bandwidth, enhanced electrical power (220v), power conditioning (Uninterrupted Power Supplies), and restricted access controls. Within the College, the local area network infrastructure consists of a combination of Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, RedHat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu Linux and VMS with over 3 terabyte of server storage space. Backups of file, web, database and application servers are run daily and preserved in a fire-proof safe. Monthly backup tapes are transported offsite. RAID array backup technology has been implemented to provide a redundant backup system to compliment tape backups.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Terminal Services servers are available to offsite and traveling faculty, staff, and students. Network security and protection are top priorities within the College, requiring password authentication to all network resources and in some cases, password and data encryption. Software firewalls and IP Security (IPsec) filtering have been installed to protect servers. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is incorporated into Internet-based web data and web mail. Anti-virus/spyware tools and software have been implemented across the College to ensure data protection. Information Technology staff monitor event logs, including security audit logs, applications logs, and system logs.
Collegiate IT policies, plans, and procedures include Contingency and Disaster Recovery Plan, Incident Handling, Risk Assessment Management and Analysis, Facility Security Plan, Systematic Change Control Procedures, Data Destruction and Sanitization Guidelines, Server Monitoring and Audit Procedures, and Enterprise Password Policy. The collegiate Office of Information Technology requires IT staff to attend HIPAA and FERPA training, as well as read and sign an annual Confidentiality Statement.
The College network supports over 1000 personal computers, 30 plus Linux workstations, a host of local and network printers, and five student computing facilities. The local area network is connected to the University of Iowa campus and Internet through the campus fiber optic network. (02/09)
The University of Iowa Information Technology Services (ITS) department provides the following campus resources:
General Services: e-mail, electronic calendaring, telephones and voicemail, centrally-managed desktops; University-wide directory services; file and print sharing; server hosting; mobile computing support
Web Services: hosting web sites for faculty, staff, and students; ICON (Iowa Courses Online) for hosting web-based course sites.
Video Services: Campus Video System; UITV; satellite services; video conferencing; video web streaming; video production; video post-production
Administrative Information Services/Systems: academic and financial student records, library automation, central business office functions, human resources, payroll, and personnel services, ISIS (web portal for students to register for classes, get grade reports, and access other services).
Internet Network access: campus Ethernet data network; campus wireless network; remote access
Software: Campus Software Program-site licensed software for faculty, staff, and students
Hardware: Computer Purchase Program-educational discounts for faculty and staff purchase of computers, Computer Demo Center , virus disinfecting for students
Support:
General -Customer Information Desk; Help Desk; web, office, thesis, web survey and statistics software support.
Instructional Computing -course websites; software development; training; digital media
Research Computing -visualization; grid computing; bioinformatics; computational services; web development; collaborative tools; scientific consulting; training
Facilities: Instructional Technology Centers (student computing labs); Studio 107 (assistance for faculty) (February 2009)
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
Hardin library has over 370,000 volumes including books, videos and DVDs and access to over 14,000 periodical titles, 2,500 current journal subscriptions and the John Martin Rare Book Room - nearly 5,000 volumes devoted to the history of health sciences.
The Hardin Library Web site provides access to thousands of online resources including databases, journals and books. The Web site also provides users with current library news, policies, and other important information regarding the library. The library staff provides an array of services to its users including instruction, consultation, finding aids, document delivery, circulation, and research assistance.
The library liaisons to the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Public Health provide specialized, tailored services for the various colleges including course content support, access to clinical tools and research assistance. In addition to housing the collections, the library has a large amount of space for research and reading, and can accommodate over 800 users including four group study rooms and a 24-hour study room.
The Information Commons, Hardin Library's state-of-the-art health sciences educational technology facility, offers two networked electronic classrooms supporting both Windows and Linux operating systems, a case-based learning/conference room, and information research workstations for searching health-related databases and the Internet. The Hardin Library Simulation Center is also located in the Information Commons, providing access to healthcare simulation training, including catheterization, venipuncture, eye examination, CPR, and cardiopulmonary models.
The University Library and the various departmental libraries contain over four million volumes. The Main Library is located approximately 1/4 mile from the College of Public Health departments located on the main campus.
Collegiate Centers
August 2009