Center for Urban Population Health

What Center for Urban Population Health does

The Center for Urban Population Health (CUPH) is an academic research center established in April 2001 as a tri-institutional partnership among the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH), the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and Aurora Health Care (now Advocate Aurora Health). It operates from a single office at 1020 N 12th Street, Suite 4180 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, co-located within and embedded in the Aurora Research Institute, with staff drawn from all three partner institutions and assigned to projects based on skills required. The center's core mission is to advance population health research and education focused on social determinants of health and health equity in urban communities, organized around five research themes: maternal and infant health, child and adolescent health risks, aging and health promotion, technology innovations in integrating health data systems, and social and cultural health determinants.

CUPH's service portfolio includes HealthCompassMilwaukee.org, a 2018-launched data platform providing Milwaukee County health indicators disaggregated by race, gender, age, and socioeconomic status; three-tier faculty engagement services (Service, Project, Program) supporting investigators with study design, data analysis (qualitative, quantitative, GIS, surveys), grant writing, and dissemination; community health needs assessments across six southeastern Wisconsin counties; Wisconsin Tobacco Surveillance; the Wisconsin CONNECT substance use prevention platform; the Steps for Success Field Guide and Institute for collective impact; and a Dissemination and Implementation Research Training Series. Between 2013 and 2019 the center reported directly impacting 162,848 individuals while working with 409 community-based organizations. Recent initiatives include the Advancing Milwaukee Health Literacy Project, Gee's Wellness Clinic barbershop initiative, and behavioral health needs assessments for the Hmong community in Wisconsin.

CUPH does not operate a commercial revenue model; it is funded through extramural grants from government agencies including the CDC and Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and from foundations such as the Wisconsin Partnership Program, Anthem, and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation. No venture capital, private equity, or external investor ownership has been identified. The center markets primarily through its website, monthly third-Friday seminar series, annual reports, peer-reviewed publications, and direct partnership engagement with faculty, community organizations, and health systems.

Name

Center for Urban Population Health

Legal name

Center for Urban Population Health

Website

https://cuph.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Center for Urban Population Health (CUPH) is a Milwaukee-based academic research center established in 2001 as a tri-institutional partnership among UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and Aurora Health Care, providing population health research, evaluation, and education services focused on health equity and social determinants of health in urban Wisconsin communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Health Research Services

NAICS

Social Assistance (624)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Health Equity, SDOH & Disparities Measurement (HLAJANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Health & Health Equity/Social Determinants Units (HLAJAAAO), Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) & Equity Measurement (HLAJAJAI)

Keywords

• Population health research
• Community health assessment
• Social determinants health
• Health equity research
• Program evaluation services

Headquarters

HQ city

Milwaukee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: CUPH operates as a research center funded through extramural grants from government agencies including CDC, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and foundation funding from Wisconsin Partnership Program.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Center for Urban Population Health (CUPH) is an academic research center that conducts population health research and provides research support services to faculty investigators, community-based organizations, and healthcare systems. It delivers community health needs assessments, study design and data analysis, program evaluation, faculty engagement services, and training, with a focus on social determinants of health and health equity in urban communities.

Product overview

The Center for Urban Population Health (CUPH) is a research center initiated in 2001, not a commercial product company. It functions as a collaborative partnership among UW School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Milwaukee, and Aurora Health Care (Advocate Aurora Research Institute). CUPH offers a portfolio of research and education services rather than a unified product platform. Key offerings include HealthCompassMilwaukee.org (a health data visualization platform), research and evaluation services across population health domains, community health needs assessments, tobacco surveillance programs, and various training initiatives including the Steps for Success Field Guide and D&I Research Training Series. The organization works with hundreds of community-based and governmental partners to improve urban community health through evidence-based interventions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HealthCompassMilwaukee.org: A dynamic website developed in 2018 with financial support from Milwaukee Health Care Partnership, providing the most current health indicators for Milwaukee County with mapping, reporting, and comparative analytic tools.

Products and services

• HealthCompassMilwaukee.org A dynamic public-facing website providing current health indicators for Milwaukee County with mapping, reporting, and comparative analytic tools. Data is disaggregated by race, gender, age, and socioeconomic status at state, county, municipality, and census tract levels. It supports research and planning for healthcare, public health, academic, philanthropic, and government sectors.
• Community Health Needs Assessments Comprehensive CHNA development including secondary data reports, qualitative key informant interviews, and executive summaries across southeastern Wisconsin counties, conducted with the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership and area municipal health departments.
• Faculty Engagement Services Three levels of faculty engagement for researchers from Aurora Health Care, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and UW-Milwaukee: Service (contracted expertise for a specific project), Project (research project coordination/management), and Program (grant writing and implementation support).
• Research and Evaluation Services Expertise in study design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, GIS and survey methods, program evaluation, community partnership facilitation, and health services research.
• Education and Training Services Population health research training for medical residents, fellows, students, and service learning opportunities, with internship placements coordinated by staff.
• Wisconsin Tobacco Surveillance Surveillance research on tobacco use trends and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control activities, producing fact sheets, briefs, and reports for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
• Wisconsin CONNECT A collaborative platform providing technical assistance and training opportunities for substance use prevention and treatment grantees, providers, clinicians, social workers, and support staff in Wisconsin.
• Steps for Success Field Guide and Institute A step-by-step process guide and training institute for implementing effective collective impact, covering priority-setting, tactic determination, metric tracking, collaboration building, and backbone leadership establishment.
• D&I Research Training Series Dissemination and Implementation Research Training Series focused on translating evidence-based practices into real-world settings using frameworks such as RE-AIM.

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and important.

• UW School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2001Founding partner institution providing medical and public health research expertise. CUPH is made up of faculty and staff from UWSMPH who collaborate on population health research initiatives.
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2001Founding partner institution contributing public health, social sciences, and community engagement expertise. Staff from UWM's Zilber School of Public Health work on CUPH projects.
• Aurora Health Care / Advocate Aurora Research InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2001Founding healthcare partner. CUPH is embedded within the Aurora Research Institute, providing access to clinical research infrastructure and healthcare practice settings.
• Milwaukee Health Care PartnershipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative of four Milwaukee health systems (Advocate Aurora Health, Ascension Wisconsin, Children's Wisconsin, Froedtert Health) plus local health departments conducting shared Community Health Needs Assessments.
• Milwaukee Area Federally Qualified Health CenterscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork of FQHCs including Access Community Health Centers, Kenosha Community Health Center, Milwaukee Health Services, Outreach Community Health Centers, Progressive Community Health Centers, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers, and others partnering on health improvement initiatives.
• Wisconsin Department of Health ServicescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerState agency providing funding and partnership for population health initiatives including tobacco surveillance, substance use prevention, and harm reduction programs.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederal funding source for various health programs including colorectal cancer screening, WISEWOMAN, asthma program, and environmental health tracking.
• City of Milwaukee Office of African American AffairsimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerCity office leading the Advancing Milwaukee Health Literacy Project to address COVID-related racial disparities through health literacy improvement.
• Marquette UniversityimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in the Advancing Milwaukee Health Literacy Project contributing research and evaluation expertise.
• Medical College of WisconsinimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner contributing to Milwaukee Health Report refinement and HealthCompass Milwaukee development, and Cancer Collaborative Work Groups initiative.
• Racine Interfaith CoalitionimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity coalition partner in Women of Worth program addressing substance abuse and mental health for women and children in Racine area.
• Wisconsin Department of Public InstructionimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerState education agency partner in Wisconsin Collective for Comprehensive Assessment (WiCCA) project supporting speech-language pathologists.
• Community AdvocatesimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead agency for Stay Strong Milwaukee substance abuse prevention programming and Milwaukee Brighter Futures Initiative.
• Hmong American Friendship AssociationimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity organization partnered with CUPH to conduct behavioral health needs assessment of adult Hmong population in Wisconsin in 2021.
• Walnut Way Conservation CorpsimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity organization partner in Lindsay Heights Men's Wellness Council and No Longer an Island men's peer groups initiative.
• Area Municipal Health DepartmentsimportantStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocal health departments collaborating on Community Health Needs Assessments across southeastern Wisconsin counties.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• AcademyHealth: National professional society and research organization that convenes health services researchers and policy professionals. Broader and more policy-oriented than CUPH, but operates in the same health research and population health evidence ecosystem.
• Mathematica Policy Research: Major social policy research firm with a substantial health portfolio doing program evaluation, SDOH analytics, and federal evaluation work for agencies like HHS and CDC. Comparable economic model and federal funder relationships, but operates commercially at far greater scale.
• RAND Health: A large, established health research division of RAND conducting policy and population health research for government and foundation clients. Comparable in research methodology and funding model but operates at significantly larger scale and broader scope.

Emerging players

• National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ): Non-profit focused on improving children's health outcomes through quality improvement, research, and community partnerships. Partial overlap with CUPH's maternal/child health and community-based population health work.

Direct peers

• Population Health Research Institute: An academic-clinical research institute focused on population health outcomes, epidemiology, and large-scale multi-site health studies. Comparable as an academic research center driving population health evidence generation, though operating at much larger scale and international scope.
• Urban Institute Health Policy Center: Washington, D.C.-based research organization with a dedicated health policy center focused on health equity, SDOH, and population health for underserved communities. Comparable mission and methodology to CUPH, though operating at a national scale.
• NORC at the University of Chicago: An independent academic research organization affiliated with the University of Chicago that conducts population health, health equity, and social science research with government and foundation funding. Closely comparable operating model to CUPH as a non-academic-department research center.
• University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute: Also based at the University of Wisconsin and focused on population health improvement, health equity, and community health assessments in Wisconsin. Shares parent UW institutions and overlapping funder networks with CUPH, making it the closest direct counterpart in Wisconsin.
• Institute for Population Health (Detroit): Detroit-based organization focused on urban population health, health disparities, and community-based health improvement. Geographically distinct but directly comparable as an urban-focused population health research and service organization.
• Center for Health Equity Research at University of Pennsylvania: Academic health equity research center affiliated with a major medical school and community partners, conducting research on SDOH and disparities. Comparable to CUPH in its academic-clinical-community partnership structure and health equity focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cuph_mke
• Facebookfacebook.com/cuph.mke
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/center-for-urban-population-health

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Center for Urban Population Health