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Donaghue Investigator Award Bestowed on Ruger

Jennifer Prah Ruger, Ph.D., is one of three recipients of the 2007 Donaghue Investigator Awards.

The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation for Health-Related Research are funding a Yale School of Public Health study about how to allocate the highest quality healthcare in an equitable fashion while retaining desired levels of efficiency and technological innovation. 

Jennifer Prah Ruger, Ph.D., received one of the Foundation’s three, five-year $600,000 Investigator Awards this year.

Ruger, an assistant professor in the Division of Global Health at Yale School of Public Health, will use this award to produce and synthesize a foundation of scientific research on the ethical and economic implication of approaches to reducing disparities in healthcare, specifically focusing on treatments among vulnerable populations such as women, adolescents and members of minority and other high-risk groups.  Ruger’s goal is to translate her findings into clinical and public health programs and make more efficient use of scarce resources, while improving clinical and public health practice.   

“It is a real honor to receive the Donaghue Investigator Award,” said Professor Ruger. “It will be invaluable in furthering my research on the ethics and economics of health and healthcare disparities in the United States and across the globe.”
Ruger is also a senior research fellow and a member of the International Affairs Council at the Yale Macmillan Center .

Previous studies by Ruger have found global health inequalities are substantial, growing, and influenced by economic, social and health-sector variables as well as geography.  A recent study she co-authored in the American Journal of Public Health found those who most need medical care in Korea but can afford it least spend more of their income on health services than wealthier individuals.

The Donaghue Investigator Program is aimed at supporting particularly promising and highly talented medical researchers holding academic appointments at Connecticut institutions.  The Donaghue Foundation began the program in 1998 as a 10-year initiative, making 2007 the final year of the program.  All awards that were granted were given based on the research’s potential for making a direct impact on improving public health, clinical practice or community health interventions.