Proven Impact

Our research has led to (among many innovations):

• Mediterranean Diet (1980)
• Method to contain PFCs (now called PFAs) to protect drinking water and the environment (2018)
• First association between e-cigarettes and cancer-causing agents (2018)
• Effective COVID-19 treatments
• Lowering of the suggested age for colonoscopies to 45 (2018)
• Verification of new treatment plans for people with HIV, saving millions of lives (2006, 2015)
• Legislation that allows Medicaid payment for services from a certified doula for pregnant women in Minnesota
• Legislation that requires all new and remodeled buildings to be fully accessible to people with disabilities (1984)
• Discovery of an association between mining dust exposure and cases of mesothelioma (2014)
• First report card for quality of life in nursing homes (2010)
• National Minor’s Consent to Health Services Act of 1971
• First comprehensive definition of childhood abuse and neglect (1984)
• First model to predict probability of complications from radiation therapy
• First report to show high rates of concussions associated with youth football players (1983)
• First city-wide ban of cigarette vending machines in the U.S. (1989)
• FDA-proposed restrictions of tanning bed use by people 18 years of age and younger (2015)
• Development of the Minnesota Model used nationwide to track foodborne illness outbreaks
• National Minor’s Consent to Health Services Act of 1971
• Development of the Minnesota Code, the most widely used electrocardiogram (ECG) classification system for epidemiological studies (1960)