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Influenza, Disaster Preparedness, Bioterrorism, Reproductive Health and Health Care Access Among Top Public Health Concerns

Posted on: Monday, 21 November 2005, 15:00 CST

News Advisory:

-- Thousands of Experts to Address Leading Issues at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 10-14, in Philadelphia, Pa.

The nation's public health officials will gather in Philadelphia Dec. 10-14 to tackle pressing health concerns from pandemic influenza planning and prescription drug access to reproductive health and the public health response to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

About 10,000 experts will attend to share the latest public health research and practice. The meeting will feature reports on the processes of systematically finding, appraising and using scientific research as the basis for developing sound practices. It will also include hundreds of sessions on other significant issues in public health such as influenza pandemic planning, emergency contraception, HIV/AIDS, disaster preparedness, chronic disease prevention and control and health disparities.

The meeting opens Sunday, Dec. 11, with presentations by political and public health leaders, including former presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, chair of the National Governors Association. In addition, a special plenary panel with frontline accounts of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been added to the meeting's Opening General Session. Panelists include Kevin Stephens, MD, JD, director of the New Orleans Health Department; Jimmy Guidry, MD, state health officer and medical director, Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals; Eduardo Sanchez, MD, commissioner of health, Texas Department of Health; and Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director, Kaiser Family Foundation. The panel's moderator will be Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

The weeklong conference features more than 900 scientific sessions where attendees can access the most up-to-date public health research reflecting the broad impact this field has in our lives.

The full Annual Meeting program and abstracts are searchable at http://www.apha.org/meetings. Press registration is available at http://www.apha.org/news/annual. Final programs with session locations along with daily news media updates will be available on site at the APHA Press Office, Room 308 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Journalists must display a registration badge to gain entry to sessions. Highlights include:

3004.2 Latebreaking Developments in Public Health: Public Health and Social Justice Issues Related to Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath, Monday, Dec. 12: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Featured presentations:

-- Social context of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; Carol Easley Allen, PhD, RN

-- Social justice issues related to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath; Victor W. Sidel, MD, Barry S. Levy, MD, MPH

-- Disaster Preparedness: Lessons learned; Dennis P. Andrulis, PhD

3023.0 Syndromic Surveillance and Bioterrorism, Monday, Dec. 12: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m.

3028.0 Emergency Preparedness and Public Health Capacity Building, Monday, Dec. 12: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Featured presentations:

-- BT preparedness of public health workers: A competency based evaluation; George J. Graham, PhD

-- Psychosocial aspects of bioterrorism and disaster response for public health professionals; Philip T. McCabe, CSW, CAS, Mitchel Rosen, MS

-- Adapting bioterrorism plans for traditional large scale public health response; Robert Rendin, MSM, MSEH, Nancy Welch, MD, MHA, MBA, Lisa G. Kaplowitz, MD, MSHA

3049.0 Implications in Reproductive Health Services: Youth, Women, HIV/AIDS/STI, Emergency Contraception, Monday, Dec. 12: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Featured presentations:

-- Women's experiences accessing EC in California pharmacies; Sharon Cohen, MPH, Frances Chung, Nicole Monastersky, MPH, Diana Greene Foster, PhD, Nancy Kim

-- Facilitating access to reproductive health services through mobile health units; River Finlay, Giselle Carino

3145.0 Emergency Preparedness and Public Health Capacity, Monday, Dec. 12: 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Solving issues in emergency preparedness and response: Building successful workgroups using clinicians and other critical partners; Valerie Munn, CPht, BA, MHPA, Michael L. Smith, MPA, MI

-- Beyond the flu vaccine: Evaluating the health department's role in assuring emergency health services; Michele Samarya-Timm, MA, REHS, CHES, Walter D. Galanowsky, MPH

3183.0 CHWs in the Eye of the Storm: Responding to Katrina, Monday, Dec. 12: 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Featured presentation:

-- More powerful than trucks and helicopters: The role of Community Health Workers in disaster preparedness and relief; Carl H. Rush, MRP, Jacqueline B. Scott, BA, JD

3186.0 Disaster Preparedness: Bioterrorism and Natural Disaster, Monday, Dec. 12: 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Featured presentations: -- National Priorities, Meeting Local Needs; Robert J. Tosatto, RPh, MPH, MBA

-- Bioterrorism competency and training needs assessment of hospital emergency department and school nursing personnel; Janel Alberts, PhD, Curtis Condon, PhD, Mark Horton, MD, MSPH

-- Bioterrorism and disaster preparedness training needs of behavioral health professionals; Janel Alberts, PhD, Curtis Condon, PhD, Annette Mugrditchian, LCSW

3218.0 The Costs of War: Consequences of Service to U.S. Soldiers, Their Loved Ones, and Their Communities, Monday, Dec. 12: 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m.

Featured presentations:

-- Costs of war: Consequences of service to U.S. soldiers, their loved ones, and their communities; Anne L. Roesler, MPH, CHES, Nancy Lessin, MS

3256.0 Update on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, Monday, Dec. 12: 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m.

Featured presentations:

-- Pharmaceutical industry and the state of America's health: Changing consumer dynamics and emerging political and regulatory issues of the pharmaceutical industry; Danya M. Qato, PharmD, MPH, J. Warren Salmon, PhD

-- Modernizing Medicare: Opportunities for Pharmacies; CAPT Gary W. Blair, DPh, MPH, PP

3271.0 Helping the Uninsured to Access Services and Medications, Monday, Dec. 12: 2:30 p.m.- 4 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Healthcare access for young adults: A literature review, needs assessment, and policy recommendations; Mumtaz Mustapha, Elise Resch, Natalie Combs, Janet Shalwitz, MD

3274.0 Health at the Border, Monday, Dec. 12: 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m.

Featured presentations:

-- Border environmental health challenges; Hector F. Gonzalez, MD, MPH

-- Collaborative organizing partnerships in Mexico and the U.S. to achieve environmental health justice; Cipriana Jurado

-- Environmental health among women in the migrant farmworker sector; Ramona Felix

3276.0 Influenza Prevention and Control in the Twenty-First Century, Monday, Dec. 12: 2:30 p.m.- 4 p.m.

3334.0 Our Healthcare Workforce and Infrastructure: Is It Doing the Job? Monday, Dec. 12: 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Public health shortage areas: The case of Pennsylvania; Albert J.F. Cardelle, PhD, MPH, Deidre Holland

-- Building community emergency response capacity through integrated healthcare workforce education and training; Christopher M. Cannon, MSN, MPH, MBA

-- Flu Vaccine in the ED: How receptive are nurses and doctors to paraprofessionals 'giving the orders'?; Salman Baghian, BS, Aubrey F. Lipham, BS, Dale M. Marioneaux, BS, Med, Monica Pradhan, BS, MNS, William M. Cassidy, MD

3356.0 Diabetes and Obesity: The New Epidemic of the 21st Century, Monday, Dec. 12: 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Development of a community-based intervention to enhance community resources for diabetes management; Mary F. Riley- Jacome, MA, Mary P. Gallant, PhD, Benjamin A. Shaw, PhD

-- Adherence to treatment plans as a function of cultural beliefs regarding diabetes; Diamantina Freeberg, EdD, Belinda M. Reininger, DrPH

4023.0 Infectious Disease Surveillance, Tuesday, Dec. 13: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m.

Featured presentations:

-- Evaluating public health disease reporting systems in health departments; David Dausey, Mphil, PhD, Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, Michael A. Stoto, PhD, Alexis Diamond, MA

-- Racial and ethnic disparities in influenza vaccination coverage for the 2004-2005 influenza season; Michael W. Link, PhD, Indu Ahluwalia, PhD, Gary L. Euler, DrPH, Carolyn Bridges, MD, Susan Y. Chu, PhD

4052.0 Drugstore Dilemma: Can pharmacists refuse to dispense birth control? Tuesday, Dec. 13: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Featured presentations:

-- Pharmacist refusals to dispense birth control: The latest battle over reproductive rights; Lois Uttley, MPP

-- Pharmacist choice to dispense birth control: A pharmacist's perspective; Donald F. Downing, BS Pharm, RPH

4100.0 Managing chronic diseases among American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Tuesday, Dec. 13: 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Traditions of the heart: A cardiovascular health program for Alaska Native women; Vanessa Y. Hiratsuka, BA

-- Evaluation of the Indian Health Service Diabetes Care model using the Chronic Care Model and the W.H.O. International Care for Chronic Conditions model; Kelly J. Acton, MD, MPH, Susan Gilliland, PhD, RN, Yvette Roubideaux, MD, MPH, Kelly Moore, MD

4316.0 Federal Assaults on Medicaid and SCHIP: State and National Efforts to Protect Access to Care, Tuesday, Dec. 13: 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m.

5041.0 Environmental Health Preparedness and Emergency Response, Wednesday, Dec. 14: 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Featured presentations:

-- Beyond bioterrorism: Environmental health uses for syndromic surveillance; Magdalena Berger, MPH, June M. Weintraub, ScD

-- Environmental health's role in all hazards and terrorism response preparedness, a local government model; Jack A. Brown, RS, BA, MPH

5081.0 From Ache to Bayou Gauche: Public Health Disasters, Wednesday, Dec. 14: 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Featured presentations:

-- Common elements in the public health preparation for and response to both natural and man-made disasters; Kaye Bender, RN, PhD, FAAN

-- It's not a simple flood anymore: Lessons learned from the American Red Cross; Julie Reynes, VP

-- Protecting both New Orleans and rural Louisiana: A state health officer's perspective; Jimmy J. Guidry, MD

Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community- based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at http://www.apha.org.

http://www.usnewswire.com

Source: U.S. Newswire

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