Please send items of interest for the E-News -- and any other feedback -- to E-News editor Kevin Sherin, MD, MPH. . Thanks!
AAPHP MEETS IN CHICAGO, June 13, 2009
Cartoon video on personal hygiene: Orange County FL HD -- Protect!
Don’t Infect! video is now on You Tube!
http://www.youtube.com/orchdept.
ACTION ALERT: AAPHP urges modification of FDA/Tobacco Bill (see item 7)
CONTENTS:
1) AAPHP Annual Meeting, Chicago, June 13
2) Renewal of AAPHP’s AMA Affiliate Status
3) AMA resolutions
4) Membership services
5) Public Health BLOGS, Dr. Kim Buttery
6) AMA News Public Health updates
7) Tobacco Updates from Dr. Nitzkin
8) Tobacco Letter for Florida Health News from AAPHP President, Kevin Sherin
9) AAPHP members publish guideline on Osteoporosis screening
10) Please Help Us to Help You
11) PCPI WORK GROUP NOMINATIONS: CAD-HTN and Heart Failure
12) To Contact E-News
1. MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The AAPHP annual meeting will be held Saturday
evening, June 13 at the AMA annual meeting in Chicago. The AMA meeting runs from the 13-15th, and is always held in Chicago. I want as many AMA members who are AAPHP members as possible to attend this meeting.
Our meeting in Chicago will tentatively include Rodney G. Hood, MD, Past President of the National Medical Association. His topic will be Health Equity and National Health Reform. There is a possibility that our forum may also include a speaker from AARP.
2. Every 5 years, the AMA requires the AAPHP to renew its AMA
specialty affiliate status. Arvind Goyal, MD, MPH, our AMA delegate has already received the packet from the AMA. This is due: April 1st.
It is quite complex and requires that many of our AAPHP members must also be dues paying members of the AMA. Please renew your AAPHP membership today, and renew your AMA membership at the same time. Our considerable clout within AMA depends on our maintaining affiliate status.
3. Please make use of our AAPHP resolutions process to submit
important resolutions to the AMA for considerations in the house of delegates. This is your opportunity as an AAPHP member to submit quality resolutions that represent public health interests, or interests for health policy or the health of all Americans. AAPHP resolutions must be submitted to Arvind Goyal at Arvindkgoyal@aol.com I look forward to another great round of quality resolutions from our AAPHP.
4. Membership services: Sandra Magyar for Green Cove Springs FL has
been contracted for membership services. We look forward to rapidly getting your 2009 dues notices to you. It helps AAPHP with transaction costs if we can do this electronically. Please send your PREFERRED
email address to Sandy at magyarsf@bellsouth.net Remember, renewal
of your dues, membership, and updated information for AAPHP is vital as we are re-authorized by the AMA in the next two months! THANKS.
5. Quality Public Health Blogs on AAPHP website: For years, Dr. Kim
Buttery, our webmaster, who is a Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, has compiled high quality public health blogs.
Dr. Buttery’s posts, commentaries, and thought provoking analysis are second to none. I home that you will look at the blog site with great frequency, especially in this time of rapid change for public health, funding, and national health care policy. Current (March 5, 2009) blog topics include: Let’s not turn elderly people into patients; Only Exercise Effective In Preventing Low-back Problems; Being overweight just as risky to health as being a smoker; Weight Loss- The diet may not matter as much as total calorie reduction and Credibility of Clinical Guidelines Go to the AAPHP.org website and click blogs on the left, or go directly to the blogs and bookmark it to your browser
at http://blog.vcu.edu/cbuttery/ Below are listed quality blogs from
the last date in January which will give you an idea of the overall quality and value for your rapid reading pleasure.
6. AMA news Public Health updates: AMA news customizes briefings for
public health physicians. Go to the website, www.ama-assn.org and order your customized briefing today. Here is a small sampling. Breast tissue density correlated with breast cancer risk. Steven Cummings, M.D., California Pacific Medical Center Research Institutes team performed meta-analysis of studies of risk involving tens of thousands of women over 50 to find the best determinants. The conclusion was to pay more attention to breast density, the ratio of breast issue to fat in the breast. The higher the density, the greater the risk." , The study concluded that dense breast tissue contains a four-to-five-fold breast cancer risk. " The AMA news in early March, also referenced the LA times - Public health advocates are “praising the $1 billion for disease prevention and wellness programs included in President Obama's economic stimulus package but say that it is only a fraction of the billions needed to keep the country healthy." The US "spent about $35 billion a year on disease prevention in 2008, or about $17 per person, according to Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a Washington-based advocacy group." That "compares with $2.4 trillion spent on treatment." Faced with "a financial crisis, local and state governments are cutting public health spending." More than "11,000 public health jobs were eliminated in 2008, Robert M.
Pestronk, executive director of the National Assn. of County and City Health Officials, said during a teleconference this morning." The teleconference "was called to publicize the release of a report called 'Shortchanging America's Health: A State-By-State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars Are Spent,' produced by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation." The disparities in state funding per capita are shocking with the Midwest and Southern states “shortchanging” health dollars for prevention. For an analysis and the reference see the LATIMES.com for more information.
7. Tobacco Update: Joel Nitzkin: The current version of
Representative Waxman’s FDA/Tobacco bill (H.R. 1256) has cleared Waxman’s House Energy and Commerce Committee, and is now on the way to the House floor. The bill is 35 pages longer than last year’s bill, but otherwise essentially unchanged. As seen by the AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force, this bill, despite its many endorsements, is severely flawed, and if passed without amendment would likely do more harm than good in terms of future rates of tobacco-related illness and death, and future rates of teen tobacco use. The good news is that, with proper and politically feasible amendment – this bill could set the stage for dramatic reductions in tobacco-related illness and death. As we write this, advocates for the bill are attempting to secure co-sponsorship of the bill (new Congress requires new bill and new co-sponsors) in hopes of getting enough co-sponsors to fast-track it to the floor of the house in a way that will not allow either discussion or amendment. For details of the AAPHP analysis of this bill and proposed amendments – please go to the tobacco issues page at www.aaphp.org. Meanwhile – WE URGE ALL AAPHP MEMBERS TO CONTACT THEIR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TO URGE THAT THEY DO NOT ACCEPT THE INVITATION FROM WAXMAN TO CO-SPONSOR THIS BILL IN ORDER TO FACILITATE AMENDMENT OF THE BILL AND PASSAGE OF A MUCH IMPROVED BILL ON THE HOUSE FLOOR. If you have any questions or concerns about this recommendation, please feel free to contact Dr. Nitzkin, Chair of the AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force at jln@jln-md.com or 504 899 7893 .
8. FDA tobacco regulation. Your AAPHP President had a letter to the
editor published in FL Health news. See http://flhealthnews.org for more information. AAPHP president publishes letter to editor. The Florida health News published the letter from your editor about strengthening the currently proposed FDA tobacco legislation.
ANALYSIS & OPINION
http://www.floridahealthnews.org/index.cfm/go/public.analysis
Tobacco bill needs strengthening
I am writing to you as President of the American Association of Public Health Physicians on behalf of our membership, about the greatest threat to the health of all Floridians -- smoking cigarettes.
To adequately address the health risks of smoking, strong federal leadership is needed for FDA/Tobacco Bill HR 1108 in the 110th Congress and HR 1256 in the 111th Congress. The bill in its current form fails to adequately reduce teen smoking initiation or tobacco-related deaths.
AAPHP offers these modifications for the FDA legislation, including the following:
--Health-risk labeling specifying relative risks by type of product.
--Strict regulation or banning of additives that "cover" harsh smoke, or affect smoking delivery systems.
--Strict regulation or prohibition of marketing themes including:
magazine, movie and media advertising, and labeling.
--Full funding of robust health education, surveillance and research to address initiation of tobacco use, smoking cessation, AND for smokers unable or unwilling to quit, substitution of lower-risk tobacco or nicotine-delivery products.
--Strict civil and criminal penalties would be specified for violations by manufacturers, distributors, and contraband vendors.
--Differential tax rates should be enacted for various tobacco products, based on relative risk to users.
Federal legislation cannot allow this industry to claim that products are "approved by the FDA," or indirectly shield cigarette manufacturers from product liability.
AAPHP therefore endorsed a stronger version of the legislation which takes these principals into account. These policies can save up to 4 million additional lives over the next 20 years. The goal of the AAPHP is to help affect public health policies that can prevent illness, disability, and death. These are also sound fiscal principles to follow in this time of economic challenges. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
For additional information on our position, please view the tobacco issues link at www.aaphp.org.
Kevin M. Sherin, MD, MPH, FACPM, FAAFP
President, American Association of Public Health Physicians
9. AAPHP members publish guideline on Osteoporosis screening: Lionel S. Lim, MD, MPH, FACPM, Laura J. Hoeksema, MD, Kevin Sherin, MD, MPH, FACPM, and the ACPM Prevention Practice Committee: Screening for Osteoporosis in the Adult U.S. Population. This will be eventually shown online at the following link. http://www.ajpm-online.net/current
10. Please let AAPHP help you – AAPHP is the voice of public health physicians and welcomes all physicians who are committed to the public’s health.
AAPHP accomplishes its work with a maximum of volunteer labor and a minimum of cash expense. We are proud to make the E-News and other AAPHP materials available without charge to physicians and medical students interested in public health.
If you haven't done so already, please download AAPHP's 2009 Membership Form right away at http://www.aaphp.org/Membership/2008MembForm.pdf and send it to us by fax or postal mail. Please make your 2008 membership as generous as you can. Consider "Supporting" or "Sustaining" membership for 2009 if you are able to do so.
AAPHP is a 501(c) (6) professional membership organization that informs and represents Public Health Physicians. AAPHP dues may be deductible as an "ordinary and necessary" business expense under the Internal Revenue Code.
Details may differ based on your individual situation.
AAPHP dues can be paid by credit card -- either by faxing the membership
form to (847) 255-0559 or by calling the AAPHP
Secretary's secure
mobile/voicemail at (360) 870-2483 .
Please also tell your friends and colleagues about AAPHP's representation of Public Health Physicians. E-News subscriptions are still free, on request, to any interested physician or medical student. We welcome new subscribers and members. Thank you for your support!
Kevin Sherin, MD, MPH (ksherin@yahoo.com) AAPHP President-elect and E-News Editor
11. Nominations are currently being sought for the following Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) work groups:
ACC/AHA/AMA PCPI Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and Hypertension (HTN) Work Group
In person meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, 2009
ACC/AHA/AMA PCPI Heart Failure (HF) Work Group In person meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, 2009
These projects represent the formal review and update to existing PCPI measure sets. Driven by the new PCPI Work Group Charge, these work groups will discuss desirable patient outcomes and will review existing measures, as well as explore the development of new measures. Selected nominees will be expected to attend the in-person meeting on the dates listed above (from 10:00 AM-4:00 PM) at a hotel near Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Following the in-person meeting, work group members will be asked to participate in a series of conference calls over a 3-4 month period. All forms are due by 3:00 PM Central on Friday, April 3, 2009. Any AAPHP members interested can contact Virginia Dato MD MPH - vmdato@gmail.com for additional information.
12. To contact E-news: AAPHP President- and editor of this e news, Dr. KEVIN SHERIN, Director, Orange County FL Health Dept. Phone: 321-239-2718;
E- mail: ksherin@yahoo.co
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