Eli Lilly announced Friday it will put $500,000 of seed money toward a new network focused on community public health research in Indiana aimed at increasing diversity in clinical trials.

The donation wasn’t announced by either institution, which are separate organizations, but was noted as a “contribution to a related entity” made Dec. 30 in IU Health’s financial statements issued this month, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported.

A year ago, the CEOs of Indiana's four largest hospital systems promised to address racism in health care. Hospital leaders shared updates on their progress at a virtual forum this week, hosted by the Greater Indianapolis NAACP and the Indianapolis Recorder.

The Indiana Department of Health made new changes to its dashboard. Hoosier physicians push back on Attorney General Todd Rokita’s advisory on unproven COVID-19 treatments. And Indiana has reported fewer than 1,000 new cases statewide for seven days.

Health systems are still struggling to keep up with demand despite declining COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Some Indiana school districts no longer need to do contact tracing. The state’s COVID-19 cases have continued to slow as it reaches 1.6 million confirmed cases. And the state surpassed 20,000 dead, reporting its most recent 1,000 in just two weeks.

Indiana's largest hospital system says COVID-19 cases continue to be high across the network, but numbers are improving slightly.

Ivy Tech has a goal to admit 600 more nursing students each year by 2025.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Riley Children’s Health chief medical officer Dr. Elaine Cox said about four times as many children are being admitted to Riley Hospital now than at any other point in the pandemic.

IU Health’s 16 hospitals across the state are at 120 percent capacity, with more than 2,000 patients. The U.S. Navy has been called in to help at IU Methodist in Indianapolis.