South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
Community Health and Chronic Disease Prevention
1800 St Julian Place
Columbia,
SC
USA
29204
Email:
heidarik@dhec.sc.gov
Biographical Sketch:
For more than 20 years I have worked in the public health area as a senior statistician, MCH epidemiologist, and chronic disease epidemiologist. I have served as the chair of the Tristate Stroke Network for two years. Two years ago I presented a poster at the same conference. I have presented in various regional and national conferences. I am currently an adjunct instructor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at USC's Arnold School of Public Health. As one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Common Ground grant recipient, we in SC are compiling a set of indicators that will enable SC to set up its chronic disease surveillance for further research and monitoring, particularly in the diabetes area. I play a pivotal role in this process as the state chronic disease epidemiologist. Most recently, I have been working with a group of collaborators from hospital association, hospital, primary care centers and academia to set up a Glycemic Management Indicators. These indicators will set the stage for public health professionals and hospital staff to monitor their diabetes approach. It is our hope to populate these indicators for actionable information to be released to stakeholders within the next month. I also manage a division with two full time senior epidemiologist and two postdoctoral fellows in collaboration with the USC’s Arnold School of Public Health. We are responsible for collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of health data related to chronic conditions such as arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and their risk factors.