Virginia Youth Sharing Public Health Stories

New Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Asthma Disparities

Minority Children Affected by Disparities in Asthma Health Care
By J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health (Acting)

Asthma affects nearly 26 million Americans, including 7 million children. While advancements in treatment and interventions have improved health outcomes for many suffering from this respiratory disease, that progress has not yet reached everyone. Poor and minority children bear the greatest burden of the disease, suffering from asthma at higher rates, experiencing greater exposure to environmental triggers and receiving less access to quality care.

On Thursday, May 31, 2012, the Obama administration launched a new approach to closing that gap: the Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities. Read More.

Mayor’s Healthy Richmond Campaign

The Official Kickoff for the Healthy Richmond Campaign 

Expo opens at 10 a.m., Kickoff begins at 10:30 a.m.Presented by: Mayor Dwight C. Jones

Join us and our very own Dr. Remley the Commissioner of The Virginia Department of Health at the  Get Healthy-Stay Healthy Health Expo.,  and Chick-fil-a cow walk, part of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Policy!

The Mayor established a Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Policy as a direct result of his concerns about disparity in health outcomes across the Richmond community. The Commission -- which is made up of health experts including physicians, hospital executives, mental health and clinical providers, and members of the community -- worked together to identify critical health issues facing the City of Richmond. Focus areas to improve Richmond’s health:

The Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Policy identified numerous factors that contribute to disparity and poor health, but they were able to prioritize and agreed on five recommendations to forward to the Mayor that they believed would make the most impact on improving the health and well-being of Richmond residents:

•      Healthy Richmond Campaign - promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors and participating in various initiatives to improve the health of Richmond’s residents,
•      Health and Social Equity - impacting policy by creating an infrastructure that promotes healthy living,
•      Behavioral Health - addressing prevention and intervention for at-risk youth and families,
•      Medical Homes for the Uninsured - eliminating barriers that impact access to health care,
•      Support for Healthcare Providers - encouraging health care providers to practice in underserved areas of  the community.

Cow Walk:  April 28, 2012 starts at 8:30 a.m  Click here and learn more

Expo Information:

Date and Time:                    April 28, 2012, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location:                              Greater Richmond Convention Center

                                             403 N. Third Street, Exhibit Hall A

         Richmond, VA 23219


(Click Below to Learn More)

Statement by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on LGBT Health Awareness Week 2012

Statement by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on LGBT Health Awareness Week 2012

LGBT Health Awareness Week is an important time to highlight the progress our country is making to address the unique health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans, especially through implementation of the health care law, the Affordable Care Act.

Studies have shown that health disparities related to sexual orientation and gender identity are due in part to lower rates of health coverage and a lack of cultural competency in the health care system। The Affordable Care Act is already helping millions of Americans gain access to care by creating coverage options for people with pre-existing conditions, and under the law, beginning in 2014, every American will have access to health care through Affordable Insurance Exchanges, new competitive marketplaces where Americans will be able to purchase affordable coverage and have the same choices of insurance that members of Congress will have. These same benefits are or will be available to LGBT Americans across the country.

The Affordable Care Act also strengthens training for health care providers, devotes new resources to improving our primary care workforce, and increases funding for community health centers, where patients are served regardless of how much they can afford to pay। We know that members of the LGBT community may be more likely to be underinsured or uninsured, making the Affordable Care Act all the more important.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services continues to address the specific health concerns of LGBT Americans, including by working to incorporate data collection on LGBT populations into national health surveys, releasing rules requiring hospitals to allow same-sex partners the ability to visit each other in the hospital, and setting up an internal working group that ensures we are effectively coordinating policies to best address LGBT health needs across every agency in the Department.

Our Department is committed to improving the health of all Americans, including LGBT Americans, and we look forward to continuing this work during LGBT Health Awareness Week and beyond.

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  For more information on how the Department is working to improve LGBT Health and Well-being, visit http://www.hhs.gov/secretary/about/lgbthealth_update_2011.html.


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  Read the Departments recommendations for future LGBT Health improvements at http://www.hhs.gov/secretary/about/lgbthealth.html


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  Learn how health reform is giving LGBT Americans more control over their health care at http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/01/new-options-for-lgbt-americans.html

Appendicitis racial disparities mostly unexplained

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Poverty and unfavorable health insurance account for only a small portion of the gap in the number of white versus Hispanic or black children who end up with a burst appendix, according to a new study.

Some previous research has explained the fact that black and Hispanic children are more likely to have their appendix rupture by pointing to signs of poor health care access, including being uninsured, having public assistance insurance or having a low socioeconomic status.

But the latest report finds that the main reasons for these disparities "are anybody's guess," said lead author Dr. Edward Livingston, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who analyzed more than half a million hospital admissions for appendicitis.

Read more about Appendicitis racial disparities

Health Equity 3rd Annual Leadership Institute

Are you interested in health equity research?

Please consider attending the UW Collaborative Center for Health Equity’s (CCHE) 3rd annual Health Equity Leadership Institute!

SAVE THE DATES: June 10-15, 2012

Application release date: February 1st

Completed application: February 24th

HELI Scholars RSVPs needed: April 1st

In partnership with the University of Maryland School of Public Health’s Center for Health Equity, the Collaborative Center for Health Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers an intensive weeklong “research boot camp” focused on increasing the number of investigators, particularly minority investigators, engaged in health disparities/health equity research that are successful in tenure track academic appointments in schools of public health, medicine and other health and behavioral health science disciplines and help them in achieving research funding through the NIH.

To join the conversation or learn more click here http://www.crech.org/joomla15/images/stories/Documents/derek%20pdf%2012.19.11.pdf

Resource Promotiong Healthy Communities, Health over healthcare

This is a very nice video that highlights nicely the type of work that is being done trying to accomplish with Healthy Communities and ACHIEVE!!

Listen in on a “conversation about health, not health care.”

Click here to listen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3Q3vpPQNM

NHLBI Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunities from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest
:
NIH Guide Notice:
• NOT-EB-11-007: Notice of Correction for PA-11-148 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine (R01)
• NOT-HL-11-155: Frequently Asked Questions for RFA-HL-12-027, Reducing the Impact of Hypertension in Low and Middle Income Countries (U01)
Program Announcement (PA):
• PAR-11-284: Health Promotion for Children With Physical Disabilities Through Physical Activity and Diet: Developing An Evidence Base (R21)
• PAR-11-288: Health Promotion for Children With Physical Disabilities Through Physical Activity and Diet: Developing An Evidence Base (R01)

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

Affordable Care Act to improve data collection, reduce health disparities

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces new draft standards to improve the monitoring of health data by race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status, and begins planning for the collection of LGBT health data

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced new draft standards for collecting and reporting data on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status, and announced the administration’s plans to begin collecting health data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. Both efforts aim to help researchers, policy makers, health providers and advocates to identify and address health disparities afflicting these communities.

“Health disparities have persistent and costly affects for minority communities, and the whole country,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Today we are taking critical steps toward ensuring the collection of useful national data on minority groups, including for the first time, LGBT populations. The data we will eventually collect in these efforts will serve as powerful tools and help us in our fight to end health disparities.”

Under the plan announced today, HHS will integrate questions on sexual orientation into national data collection efforts by 2013 and begin a process to collect information on gender identity. This plan includes the testing of questions on sexual orientation to potentially be incorporated into the National Health Interview Survey. The department also intends to convene a series of research roundtables with national experts to determine the best way to help the department collect data specific to gender identity.

“The first step is to make sure we are asking the right questions,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Sound data collection takes careful planning to ensure that accurate and actionable data is being recorded.”

Read the entire release at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/06/20110629a.html

The hidden inequity in health care

Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH - University Distinguished Professor
Department of Health Policy and Management - Johns Hopkins University
International Journal for Equity in Health April 2011, 10:15 doi:10.1186/1475-9276-10-15

Available online PDF [8p.] at: http://bit.ly/ma1rhG

“……Inequity is the presence of systematic and potentially remediable differences among population groups defined socially, economically, or geographically [1,2]. It is not the same as inequality, which is a much broader term, generally used in the human rights field to describe differences among individuals, some of which are not remediable (at least with current knowledge).
Some languages do not make a distinction between the two terms, which may lead to confusion and a need to clarify exact meaning in different contexts. Some people use the term “unfairness” to define inequity, but unfairness is not measurable and therefore not a useful term for policy or evaluation.

Inequity can be horizontal or vertical. Horizontal inequity indicates that people with the same needs do not have access to the same resources. Vertical inequity exists when people with greater needs are not provided with greater resources. In population surveys, similar use of services across population groups signifies inequity, because different population subgroups have different needs, some more than others. What is generally considered equity (equal use across population subgroups) is, in fact, inequity.

Most industrialized countries have achieved both horizontal and vertical equity in the use of primary care services, meaning that people with greater health needs receive more primary care services. Although some countries have achieved horizontal equity in use of specialist services, very few have achieved vertical equity because socially-deprived populations have less access to specialist services than their needs require….”

Why Place and Race Matter – New Report Released Today

Where you live impacts how you live. But, too often, policy makers don’t recognize that your race affects your health, too. From heart disease to cancer to child mortality to asthma, people of color are more likely to face significant health challenges – and more likely to die from those challenges. A new report we are releasing today, Why Place and Race Matter, makes the undeniable case that race must be central to the decisions made by policymakers, advocates, and community leaders if we ever hope to close the racial health gap. Download Why Place and Race Matter

Young Black Children and Children of Single Mothers Fare Worst in 2009 Rural Poverty Rates

Measuring by race, place, and family, poverty rates are highlighted for two rural groups--young lack children and children of single mothers--who each face rates around 50%.

Read the brief Beth Mattingly and Jessica Bean:
The Unequal Distribution of Child Poverty

Visit the Carsey Institute

$2.5 Million Federal Grant Awarded!

A five-year, $2.5 million federal grant will create a statewide public health training center led by the Eastern Virginia Medical School / Old Dominion University Graduate Program in Public Health.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration will fund the Commonwealth Public Health Training Center. It's a partnership of the state's graduate programs in public health, the state health department, the Virginia Public Health Association and family medicine residency programs.

The new center will train Virginia Department of Health employees, educate family-medicine residents about public health issues, strengthen the pipeline for the future public-health workforce and host statewide training events.

To Learn More Click Here

"An interdisciplinary approach to understanding genetic influences on alcohol problems and related disorders."

On behalf of the VCU Department of Epidemiology & Community Health I am writing to invite you to our Fall 2010 Seminar Series. This fall the seminars are focused on the theme "Social Determinants of Health" and features interdisciplinary scholarship from faculty throughout VCU - and beyond. Seminars take place on Mondays from 1 to 2pm at One Capitol Square, Rm. 305.

The first seminar will be given by Dr. Danielle Dick on 9/13 entitled "An interdisciplinary approach to understanding genetic influences on alcohol problems and related disorders." Dr. dick is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry 7 human Genetics and an expert on the intersection of environmental & developmental factors with genetic risk of substance use disorders.

Click here to view the full details about all the seminars schedules & location information.

Please circulate this information to faculy, students, & staff that you feel might be interested in attending. If you have any questions about the series, please contact Dr. Briana Mezuk at bmezuk@vcu.edu or Susan Margaret at smargaret@vcu.edu. Or call 804-628-2511.

2010 Health Equity CME Program - Health Equity: From Framework to Practice

Friday, May 14, 2010
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Inova Fairfax Hospital

According to a 2009 study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, between 2003 and 2006 the combined direct and indirect costs of health inequalities and premature death in the United States were $1.24 trillion.

Come join us as we explore the health equity framework, examine health disparities in Virginia, review a snapshot of cultural competence in Inova Health System and address what you, the provider, can do in practice.

This event is intended for physicians, nurses, physician assistants, residents, students, fellows and other allied health care professionals in all specialties.

Attendees will receive 3.75 CME hours for completing the course. There is no fee for attending.

Learn More...

Tackling health inequity? It’s about changing the dynamics of political power

Continuing the Croakey series on health inequalities, Marilyn Wise, manager of the healthy public policy team at the Centre for Health Equity Research Training and Evaluation (CHETRE) at UNSW, suggests that there are several possible ways forward.

But if we really want to prevent health inequities, she says we need to consider ways of expanding “the political power of the people and populations who have been excluded by our current structures and processes from decision-making about the distribution of social resources.”

Read More >

What Matters Most?

In 2008, the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy released the 2008 Health Equity report. The report served as a method of drawing attention to health inequities experienced by low income, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural populations in Virginia.

As the office prepares to draft the 2010 version of the Health Equity report, we would appreciate your participation in a brief survey. Your responses will provide information on health equity topics that are important to include in updated version. Thank you for your participation in the survey.

Complete the survey.

The National Plan for Action Changing Outcomes - Achieving Health Equity

The National Plan for Action, which captures the status of health disparities in the United States and proposes 20 strategies for their elimination, is a collaborative effort of representatives from community, faith-based and non-profit organizations, academic institutions, foundations and Federal, State and local agencies - including many members of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health.

Initiated by the Office of Minority Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Plan for Action inspires us to move forward to implement the strategies and provides us a roadmap to make an impact in the elimination of health disparities.

Comment forms are set up so that you may comment on individual chapters of the report or on the report overall. Comments will not be posted, but will be used for development of the final plan.

Please read individual chapters and take some time to add your voice to the thousands of concerned voices from around the United States. The plan is available for your comment until February 12, 2010.

http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=1&lvlID=31

Reporting on Social Inequities: A Brainstorming Session

Reporting on Social Inequities: A Brainstorming Session
By Michelle Levander

The goal was anything but modest. On Monday, 22 leaders from San Francisco Bay Area public health and journalism circles gathered in Oakland to brainstorm about ways to transform the way journalists report on health.

The common consensus of the participants: journalists focus too narrowly on health insurance and medical advances as story topics. They overlook the social inequities that contribute to daunting health problems and unnaturally shortened lives in poorer neighborhoods. In Oakland, for instance, there is a 12-year gap in life expectancy between the residents of more affluent neighborhoods in the hills and those who live in gritty neighborhoods in the flatlands. Behind those numbers, public health officials noted, are decades of inequitable decisions about land use, transportation, housing, education and open space.

Read more >

Economic burden of health inequities: Who’s paying the price?

Economic burden of health inequities: Who’s paying the price?
by Dr. Norm Oliver, Director of UVa Center on Health Disparities

What would happen if African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans had the same health outcomes as whites? Not only would we be spared the pain and suffering of the unequal burden of disease we bear, but we’d save billions of dollars each year.

In a recent study published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Thomas LaVeist et al estimate that the combined costs of health inequalities and premature death in the United States between 2003 and 2006 were $1.24 trillion. Direct medical care expenditures during this 4-year period could have been reduced by $229.4 billion if racial and ethnic health inequities had been eliminated.

Read more >