Colon Cancer Prevention
In 2003, 42% of New Yorkers over the age of 50 were being screened for colon cancer. By 2007, this number had increased to 62%. NYC exceeded its Take Care New York goal of 60% of adults age 50+ screened thanks in large part to support from the private sector, which provided seed funding for the DOHMH Patient Navigator Program. Piloted in 2002, the program is now in 14 sites, colonoscopy rates have increased 48% across the city and deaths from colorectal cancer has decreased by 12.7%. Read more about the Patient Navigator Program.

Tobacco Control
The effort to control tobacco use in NYC is a shining public health success. The combined strategies of increasing the City's cigarette tax in July 2002, implementing the Smoke Free Air Act in March 2003, free nicotine patch distribution, and a hard hitting media campaign about the health risks associated with tobacco did more to improve the health of NYC than any public health intervention in recent history. Due to the combined success of these interventions, NYC's smoking rate declined from 21.5% in 2002 to 15.8% in 2008. The effort has saved tens of thousands of lives. Read more about NYC's tobacco control efforts.

NYC Nurse-Family Partnership
What was once a small pilot project with 4 nurses serving 100 clients at 1 site, is now a vast program with more than 100 nurses across all five boroughs that has served more than 3,600 clients in 6 years. Private-public partnerships have played a key role in scaling up this pilot project to serve the needs of thousands of NYC families. The program is a national model with proven results in reducing rates of child abuse, arrests, smoking and alcohol consumption for mothers and their children, and increasing positive outcomes such as healthier pregnancies and mothers transitioning off of welfare. The NYC NFP has demonstrated success in breastfeeding promotion: 89% of program participants in NYC breastfeed compared to 74% nationally. Read more about the NYC Nurse-Family Partnership.

Epi Scholars
Recognizing that the future of epidemiology, the scientific core of public health, might be weakened by small ranks of future epidemiologists, DOHMH launched a program through FPHNY to train exceptional epidemiology graduate students to conduct applied health disparities research. This program cultivates future leaders in epidemiology and prioritizes recruiting students from under-represented communities from around the country, advances critical public health disparities research in NYC, and encourages graduate epidemiology students to consider rewarding careers in frontline public health work at the local level. Scholars work with mentors to define research questions, conduct complex analyses, and learn what it is to be an epidemiologist at a local public health agency. 21 students have participated to date; 88% plan to submit their research papers to peer-reviewed journals and 63% presented findings from their work at national and international public health conferences. Read more about the Epi Scholars program.