It's Public Health Week!

This week is National Public Health Week 2010 - and there are many ways you can get involved to promote a Healthier America. You can view a video and get tips on how your individual actions and easy changes can have a HUGE impact on our nation's health! To find out more visit: http://generationpublichealth.org.

Here are some of my favorite tips:

• Go for a run! (or bike ride)
• Get proper sleep and find time to relax.
• Wear a seat belt every time you ride in a car!
• Buy locally grown produce (almost available here in New England...)
• Recycle
• Advocate for policies and programs (health, transportation, agricultural or other) that will improve the health of your community!

Healthiest Nation In One Generation - Video

APHA Concluded

The 2009 APHA Annual Meeting is officially over. It was an exciting meeting for me. I loved networking and talking with folks from all over the country who are doing work in food and nutrition policy, public health communications, and the use of social media.

Here I am, in the picture above, presenting my summer work from Nicaragua and Costa Rica and a study that was recently published looking at the intersection of sex work and human trafficking in the International Journal of Gyneacology and Obstetrics. About 60 people were in attendance.

My fellow presenters from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Hispanic Health Council were excellent. Each of us had different approaches to the problem and/or were working with different strata of the sex worker population. The audience asked some great questions about the implications of our findings, for instance -- how can public health practitioners meet the needs of both trafficking victims and sex workers?

I hope I was able to communicate effectively the ripe opportunity for research in this area, as well as organizations' enthusiasm in Central America to partner with researchers to improve their programs and prevention activities (for instance, to inform and evaluate social marketing campaigns).

Safe travels, fellow attendees.

APHA Day 2: Exhibit Explorations

After two hours of perusing the hundreds of booths and five blisters later, I made my way through most (though notably, not all) of the exhibits housed in the Philadelphia Convention Center for the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. The exhibits promote health and educational products, provide information on the latest medical and online technologies, share program activities and job information, and highlight academic programs in the public health arena.

Here are a few photos of my favorites.

Choosy Kids - a promotional product and education service that uses a character, Choosy, to encourage physical activity and healthy eating among kids. They even sell CD's.

T-fal ActiFry -- free samples of granola and french fries that used a fraction of the typical amount of oil to cook crisp. It cooks food crisper than the oven and doesn't require a deep fry!

PharmaJet - a needle-less injection system that hooks right up to the normal medicine bottle. No more pricks! The medicine is injected by force alone through the skin. Crazy!

APHA Day 1: Environment Matters for Health

Mayor Nutter described Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection," as a city of public health firsts during today's Opening Address at APHA. He and several other speakers talked about the many public health "firsts" that Philadelphia can pride itself with: the first medical school, the first water and sanitation bureau, the first city to require water flouridation.... 

APHA 2009 Bound!

 
Veritas Health will be tweeting and blogging from the 137th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA -- right near her hometown! The conference begins Saturday, November 7th and will last until Wednesday, November 11th.

The theme of this year's conference is Water and Public Health. Dr. Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization will be speaking at the opening session, and the beloved Dr. Howard Koh will be closing the meeting on Wednesday.

If you will be in attendance, come see my presentation on Human Trafficking and Sex Work in Nicaragua and Thailand on Monday, November 9th from 12:30-2:00pm in a session titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Sex Worker Industry" Session 3261.1.

Public Health Practioners for Reform, a group started by students at the Harvard School of Public Health, will be marching to CIGNA headquarters on Monday, November 9th at 4pm in support for a public option in health care reform (and demanding that health insurance companies stop lobbying against a public option). If you'd like to join them, you can find more information about the march/rally here.

See you at the conference!

RP: Health Reform Jumps First Senate Hurdle

The Affordable Health Choices Act, legislation supported by the American Public Health Association, passed through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee this afternoon. Some of the most exciting aspects of the bill (...in terms of social determinants of health) are:

• Establish a program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to "facilitate the use of health impact assessments to gauge the public health implications of major decisions regarding the built environment, including housing, transportation systems, waste disposal sites and other land-use planning decisions.

• Establish a grant program for state and local governmental and community-based organizations to implement evidence-based community preventive health activities to reduce chronic disease rates, address health disparities (including social determinants of health), and develop a stronger evidence base of effective prevention programs and interventions.

• Collect data and conduct research on the health and healthcare of populations that have traditionally experienced health disparities...in efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services." (quotes are taken from an APHA e-mail blast)

I am excited that these components of the plan take a social determinants approach to some of the health system issues that are currently lacking. Additionally, it was wise to articulate the needed move toward an evidence-based health care system, not only in terms of medical treatment, but also prevention activities!

I had wished, however, that the creation of programs for a "public health workforce loan repayment program" would have been a grant or scholarship program for students entering graduate degrees at accredited public health schools (...am I bitter of the lack of funding for my master's degree? or the idea that I might have to fight for a stipend in a doctoral program?...)

While many health reform advocates are hopeful at this point, the slim (partisan) margin by which this bill was passed is worrisome (13-10). Next, the Senate Finance Committee holds a markup of its version of the legislation and later their version is merged with the recently passed HELP Committee bill.

Up next -- how do the House and Senate health reform legislation compare? Great question!