APHA Conference

Michelle Larkin, , J.D., M.S. R.N., senior program officer and director of the Public Health team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, speaks with Fran Kritz, editor of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health page, about lessons other advocacy groups can learn from the efforts of tobacco-control organizations. Read more...

APHA 2009 took place in the midst of major public health news-- the first meeting of public health professionals to be within reach of major health reform legislation since the 1960’s; a major public health gathering in the thick of the H1N1 epidemic. These issues were discussed, with sizeable audiences, even in the last hours of the meeting. Read more...

Although the Central Valley of California is home to many farms and agricultural businesses, a lot of local residents don’t have easy access to the fresh produce grown in their own counties. “Our produce is trucked out and then some comes back in, to big box stores,” said Genoveva Islas-Hooker in her opening remarks at a panel session on Tuesday afternoon. Read more...

To conduct the experiment, Roberto and her colleagues told local residents they were participating in a focus group on consumer behavior. While they were there, participants were allowed to order a dinner from one of three menus, one with just entrée options, one with foods and their calorie counts, or one with calorie counts and a notification that the daily recommended calorie intake for adults is 2000. Read more...

We have a tape measure that could be used for BMI measurements, a fly swatter to remind us of the horrors of infectious diseases spread by insects (seriously), some key chains/lights we'll add to our preparedness kits (yes, we have one, don’t you?), and a tube of anti-itch hydrocortisone cream (a sure fit for the supply closet) from the nice people at the California Department of Health. Read more...

Health journalists need to be reminded how important their work is because people reading their stories take health reporting very seriously, says to former CNN medical correspondent Dan Rutz, now at the National Center for Health Marketing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Read more...

Kaye Bender, president and chief executive officer of The Public Health Accreditation Board, discuss spearheading the effort to establish a voluntary, national accreditation program for public health departments. Read more...

In both sessions, Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) CEO Kaye Bender gave an overview of the accreditation process so far, including the development of draft standards with input from stakeholders, the accreditation program’s recent milestones, and the selection of 30 health departments that will participate in a beta test of the national public health accreditation program through the end of 2010. Read more...

But what does all of this buzz mean for health departments? Well, accreditation has been more than just buzz for many, it has been the driver for work helping PHAB develop standards for public health, applying the business concept of quality improvement to health departments, and efforts to promote regional collaboration (plain speak: multiple health departments working together and sharing services). Read more...

Let’s take tobacco taxes as an example: this was a key area of research funded under the SAPRP program. A “game changer,” said Ponkshe. We know that a 10% increase in the price of cigarettes leads to a seven percent decline in smoking among kids. Frank Chaloupka noted that this was counter-intuitive when he was a junior researcher a mere 15 years ago. Read more...

Kim and her colleagues found that between 2001 and 2009, states proposed over 400 policies designed to help people access fresh produce, mostly by building or improving local stores, or creating farmers markets. Of all the policies proposed, New Mexico and Louisiana enacted the most. Read more...

Accredited agencies were performing at a higher level--for example, accredited agencies set up their incident command for emergency responses faster than non-accredited agencies in North Carolina, and at a higher level than the national average. Read more...

Listen to Aaron Wernham, director of the Health Impact Project, discuss HIAs and their value. Read more...

Listen to Patrick Remington of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and MATCH Read more...

At a session on Tuesday about politics, policy and public health, all of the speakers talked about the implications of health pollutants and chemicals on the environment. They also stressed the connection between policy and planning decisions and the consequences on health. Read more...