Health access:

The KU Medical Center has received a grant to establish the Mid-America Pediatric Health Specialty Unit, which will work to improve the recognition and treatment of children’s health problems caused by environmental factors in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. The unit has created a Web site to provide information about the program, known as MAPEHSU.
The unit will link parents and health care providers to programs and experts in pediatric environmental health. It also will develop an educational campaign for the region to provide the latest information on environmental factors and children’s health. MAPEHSU is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week by phone or through the unit’s Web site.
“We know that exposure to lead, air pollution and chemicals can lead to serious health problems in children,” said William Barkman, director of KUMC’s Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and co-principal investigator in the program. “The increase in childhood asthma has been almost exclusively linked to environmental factors. With this new organization, we can get facts and experts directly to people who can impact a child’s health.

www2.kumc.edu/mapehsu/