Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Population and Cancer Prevention Program member, Peter Hovmand, PhD, MSW, has been named Director of the Center for Community Health Integration, Division of General Medical Sciences, at ӰƵ's School of Medicine.
The Pamela B. Davis Professor of Medicine, Hovmand is an internationally recognized leader in developing and applying participatory methods in system dynamics and systems science in public health and medicine.
He facilitates workshops and brings people together in different aspects of community health, including clinicians, therapists, social workers, patients, and families to understand the systems and underlying issues and perspectives. The results are articulated through causal maps of the systems or formal computer simulation models to see a holistic view of the opportunities to identify leverage points for systems change.
Hovmand is a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and has secondary appointments in the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences in the School of Medicine.
The mission of the Center for Community Health Integration is to advance scientific understanding of the systems underlying health and health equity through strategic relationships and action. As a home for collaborative research that advances community health and integrated, personalized healthcare, the new center builds on three decades of work with partners in Cleveland and around the world and focuses on making and reinforcing connections that challenge problems often perceived as intractable.
“I am excited to lead the center and plan for strategic growth in collaborations, faculty, new courses, and opportunities for thoughtful systems change to improve health, outcomes, and experiences for all, locally, regionally, and internationally,” Hovmand shared.