The theme "Putting the Public Back in Public Health" focused the attention of the more than 12,000 participants at the American Public Health Association's 130th annual meeting on the long-term goals of public health: preventing illness and eliminating disparities in health care. Among the many librarians attending were the contributors to this article, whose attendance was made possible at least in part by Sewell Fund Award.
The late Dr. Winifred Sewell, well-known for her work in the fields of librarianship, pharmacy, public health and informatics, originated the Harold and Grace Sewell Fund as a mechanism for increasing librarians' understanding of and thus ability to serve the information needs, skills and professional obligations of their clientele. The Sewell Fund provides stipends of several hundred dollars to those with an interest in and use for this kind of experience of the public health academic/practitioner world.
The three main professional activities of these librarians were:
At any given time, APHA's 25 sections were sponsoring roughly 50 scientific sessions, not counting poster presentations. These sessions covered such timely topics as “alcohol, tobacco and other drugs”, vision care, environment, gerontology and HIV/AIDS.
Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu exclaimed "this conference was probably the most beneficial conference I have ever attended." Brad Long also thought it "an excellent meeting to attend" and Helena VonVille found the entire conference "absolutely wonderful"; though she admitted "some programs were maybe a little weak, but that's to be expected".
Marcy Brown loved interacting with public health professionals but found the range of scientific sessions, exhibitors and poster sessions too broad and diffuse. (Many public health professionals find the conference equally overwhelming.) To Bobbie Carlson, first time APHA attendee but professional veteran of many national conferences, the meeting was "a smorgasbord of public health issues, topics, and speakers. [It] gave me a great appreciation for all of public health. Whether the attendees were frontline public health department workers, lay community health advisors or public health policy-makers, they shared a forum that embraced the entire realm of public health." Fellow first-time attendees Ammon Ripple and Claire Twose agreed, characterizing their reactions as "overwhelmed" and "impressed with the vast scope / breadth of activities of public health". Ammon continued: “The experience [of attending the meeting] has been most valuable in providing a snapshot of public health in 2002. I came away with a sense of kinship to the profession [and] hope to continue to attend APHA in the future - it has been a most interesting and useful experience".
For Bobbie Carlson, "choosing which sessions to attend daily within each time slot required pre-planning, careful study, and logistical forethought--a challenging but delightful exercise." Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu "took a survey approach to selecting sessions, trying to capture the culture and range of public health work in the field." Marie Ascher felt that "the programs varied in quality" and often found herself "wondering if there was something better going on elsewhere". First-time attendee Richard Wojtowicz called choosing sessions of practical use in his duties as a reference librarian "the major problem" of the meeting simply because there were so many sessions to choose from.
Betty Warner noted "continual reminders of these trends in American health: Aging population as 'already an area of great alarm', chronic diseases ([which] account for 7 out of 10 deaths), uninsured in America, racial and ethnic disparities, terrorism, serious state and local budget cuts in health."
Probably the contributor most impacted by the meeting was Marcy Brown: "The 2002 American Public Health Association annual meeting changed my life. —‘Literally’. As I write this I have [identified and] applied [for] admission to the University of Alabama's distance Master's program in Health Studies/Health Promotion." We hate to lose a librarian, but on the other hand, we'll have a strong library advocate in Marcy when she completes her health studies/health promotion degree!
"The first thing I noticed…was the amount of political activity [surrounding] the conference. We don't see much of that at the Medical Library Association" exclaimed Marie Ascher. Betty Warner found APHA "Larger, livelier, [more] diverse [and] energetic, as an organization and as a meeting, than MLA."
"In fact, the APHA conference experience was very similar to an American Library Association conference," noted Ammon Ripple. "Not only in terms of size, but also in that much of the research was practice-oriented and there is a similar tension between academics and professionals."
Every minute of the day was contained the possibility of a learning experience. "The printed final program was an outstanding piece of information, and its layout, organization, and detail provided a wonderful roadmap," according to Bobbie Carlson. Business meetings started at 7:00 am, scientific and poster sessions at 8:30 am. Marie Ascher captured the sense of the continuous programming: “At 8:30 PM I was still at it…” Abstracts and links to some full-text presentations at the APHA website http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/meeting_130am.htm helped attendees decide which sessions they most wanted to attend.
Bobbie Carlson noted one problem with the programming: "Popular sessions had big crowds trying to fit into small meeting rooms. The session, Health Disparities: What Have We Learned That Can Be Put into Practice (Session #3103.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7756.htm ), was impossible to get near. Other sessions on health disparities and bio-terrorism had standing-room-only crowds outside the doors and overflow floor seating. However, program choices did not leave me wanting, since around the corner there was always another informative session."
The conference opened with a plenary that was scheduled to last two hours but held people's attention throughout its three and a half hours. Outgoing and incoming APHA officials spoke, awards were given, and greetings and speeches were received from local, national and international figures. "The session was more political rally than a celebration of the diverse perspectives within the public health community," said Bobbie Carlson. Betty Warner noted "silent protestors with signs weaving in and out of the aisles as keynote speeches were being delivered." Marie Ascher got the impression that "everyone at the conference was a Democrat" and found there was "plenty of applause at political jokes and Republican bashing."
Betty Warner enjoyed the "tangible electricity of power and powerful concerns", since "the lead speakers were an international Who's Who of Health." Common themes among these speakers were building the public health infrastructure, social justice, equal access to quality care, and prevention as a top priority.
Scientific sessions generally consist of 2-7 presentations on related topics and run 1.5 hours. The contributors to this article attended sessions on the following topics. Descriptions and links to online abstracts to specific sessions appear in Appendix A.
As for the quality and nature of the scientific sessions, Ammon Ripple described the ones he attended: "some fascinating, others a little dry, but all revealing."
Approximately 50 posters at a time rotated in 90-minute shifts throughout the mornings and afternoons at one end of the Exhibit Hall. Contributors to this article visited posters on violence and injury, health promotion, health communication, mental health, prison health, the effect of the Internet on health education, improving patient care via evidence-based medicine, community collaborations and health literacy, and alternative and complementary health practices. First-time attendee Ammon Ripple found it "interesting to see the variety and scope of presenters and topics.”
Two posters that drew extended comments were:
1. Gathering health information on the Internet: Impact on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (4293.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_41517.htm )--This intriguing poster, based on a chapter in press by Noel T. Brewer [“The Impact of Internet Use on Health Cognitions and Behavior” in Online Consumer Psychology: Understanding and Influencing Consumer Behavior in the Virtual World, C.P. Haugtvedt, K.M. Machleit, R. Yalch, (eds.) Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum], reviewed studies of the impact of health education using the Internet by multiple sclerosis and HIV-positive patients. Claire Twose summarized: "He suggested that not only do people learn a modest amount of information through the Internet, but they gain confidence disproportionate to what they learn, as measured by a series of factual questions. (A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and even more so if taught through the Internet?) One thing I wish I'd asked was if the author used any controls for learning vs. confidence in other contexts. That is, do we generally overestimate what we learn, regardless of the medium, thus making the Web-based education no more dangerous than other approaches?”
Nancy Schaefer added: “In his handout, Brewer noted that one 2001 study of 25 Internet sites on health claimed that all required a high school or higher reading level. My experience training county health department workers and monitoring the CAPHIS (Consumer and Patient Health Information Section [of MLA] See http://caphis.mlanet.org/activities/Caphis_listserv.html ) discussion list seem to support that MedlinePlus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ is at a higher reading level than that needed by patients with limited literacy.”
In addition, Schaefer noted “Brewer used a phrase--—dose of searching'—that hinted at comparing the efficacy of short, frequent searches vs. infrequent or one-time long search sessions but he didn't develop the idea. There's an idea for the research-oriented among us!
2. Physicians Initiating Change: An Evidence-Based Approach to Improving Patient Care--Claire Twose wrote: "I was drawn to [this] poster by the inclusion of —evidence-based' in its title…but also found information relevant to funding issues for the evolving, more proactive role for librarians. In keeping with Kaiser Permanente's tradition of integrated health and health cost management, they presented information on a program in which a Kaiser Permanente employee visits practices and facilitates a process of integrating the use of appropriate treatment guidelines into the practice. It struck me that an appropriately trained medical librarian could work as such a facilitator/educator, bringing information to the point of care, and potentially being reimbursed by the health insurance company or HMO."
APHA Special Sessions ran 90 minutes long Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in larger rooms. Marie Ascher considered these of "much higher quality" than the scientific sessions, describing those she attended on human rights (4084.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9203.htm ) and obesity (5078.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9207.htm ) as among the best of the programs she attended during the meeting.
Five contributors to this article attended the following CE courses:
In two of these, they noted the absence of some important resources. Of his course, Planning Data: Finding, Analyzing and Utilizing Data (2011.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8911.htm ), Brad Long commented "the lack of a librarian instructor had lead to many missed resources which would have been useful to many of the individuals that attended this course."[Out of the mouths of first-time attendees!] Helena VonVille also felt that the session was missing valuable content; however, she wrote "the last 20 minutes were excellent-- great model called Ambulatory Care Sensitive (ACS) Conditions. ACS Conditions are (I'm quoting) diagnoses cited in hospital admissions that are considered preventable and/or manageable on an outpatient level for the general population aged 0 through 64 years."
Claire Twose used the experience as "opportunity to both make contact with several others interested in [evidence-based decision-making in public health] and to make some contributions about sources from the NLM with which participants were not familiar." Claire's other course, Process Evaluation for Public Health Interventions (2010.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8910.htm ), was an "excellent half-day workshop [which] presented the theory of process evaluation and introduction to a range of public health interventions, their context, and the kind of information researchers seek when doing this kind of evaluation."
Like MLA, APHA is divided into sections. Claire Twose attended the Medical Care section's business meetings and explained its effect: "Attending the business sessions gave me some insight into the structure and functioning of APHA, in terms of their election process and how resolutions and positions are developed."
"Last but not least, the exhibits were very useful and interesting for gaining an overview of some major players in the field and for learning more about new publications and information resources" wrote Ammon Ripple. Marie Ascher picked up a lot of grey literature and videotapes to bring back to her library and Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu picked up a wealth of brochures from various publishers to aid in her collection development activities. Kris Alpi justified attending the conference to her institution by explaining the potential for picking up free videos in English and Spanish, talking with vendors, and arranging to have bulk supplies of brochures shipped to her library.
Claire Twose concentrated on the schools of public health, health organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ , and groups affiliated with the APHA that were less familiar to her. She was able to develop a better understanding of the strengths of the various public health schools that exhibited at the conference.
The meeting provided librarians opportunities to network with other librarians serving public health academic programs and practitioners. On the afternoon of the first day of the meeting some 20 attending librarians met to introduce themselves and discuss the meeting. "Being the only public health librarian at my university, and feeling a little isolated at times, it was meaningful to have an opportunity to network with other librarians working in the field" wrote Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu. Ammon Ripple agreed: "It was nice to…meet some friendly faces with common backgrounds…. [The stipendee meeting] helped to make further connections later in the week." One of these may have been with Marcy Brown, who fulfilled her goal of making contacts in her official capacity as a member of the MLA Books Panel. She distributed Books Panel flyers and business cards to several other librarians who expressed interest in the MLA/Neal-Schuman (http://www.neal-schuman.com/index.html ) joint publishing program. She discussed a possible book on outreach and partnerships with an NLM representative.
The conference also gave them a chance to network with their own user groups. Ammon Ripple said "I found it valuable…to establish new relationships and further develop existing ones with individuals from [my] school--it will hopefully encourage them to think of me as a resource and a colleague when they need library-related advice and assistance." Kris Alpi helped staff her organization's booth, which was largely for recruitment. While there she got to meet several senior staff members who were staffing the booth… "Getting face time with these people back at work would have been difficult." Nancy Schaefer met a relatively new faculty member on University of Florida's MPH program for the first time at this meeting. She wrote: "We had to travel to Philly to meet!" Betty Warner expressed gratitude that this national meeting in her own city helped her learn what was happening there.
The meeting also gave the librarians a chance to network with public health professionals who are not part of their user groups. Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu "found it fairly easy to make connections with other professionals. I came back with a handful of cards from people [in the Washington DC area]. Since the conference I have been in contact with three of these people." (See also Lessons Learned below)
Kris Alpi moderated the session on Public Health and the Internet in Public Health Education (3145.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9354.htm ) co-coordinated by Karyn Pomerantz. "This session…gave me opportunities to talk with community health workers, librarians and researchers. Several of the people I spoke with after the session have been in contact with me [since the conference.]"
Possibly the most assiduous networker this year, Claire Twose provided two anecdotes about working the meeting for connections. "Someone from the Medical Care section stopped me on the street in the drizzle of the last day to re-introduce himself. He works in information management at Cedars-Sinai in LA and had taken note that I mentioned the word —informatics' in my self-introduction. He wanted to be sure to connect because his experience is that he meets few people who are interested or work in those areas at APHA". (Hopefully Claire got his contact information and will alert him to PH-INFO (Public Health Informatics email discussion list.)) And later: "I even had a short interview standing in line for the ladies' room with a state public health official from North Dakota."
Shadowing is a type of networking that the Sewell Fund strongly encourages. It entails a librarian attending sessions with a health professional and speaking with him/her about his/her choice of and reactions to sessions. Sewell Fund recipients are encouraged to arrange their own shadowing experience with health professionals they might serve as part of their job. The Client Relations Committee has provided some contacts for those who have been unable to locate a willing health worker on their own.
Marie Ascher chose her own shadowee. "What was most beneficial to me about shadowing [this particular health professional] is that she is a faculty member where I work…and this gave us a chance to strengthen our relationship. As a result of our time together at APHA I think we will be working more closely in the future."
His shadowing the Resource Developer and Grant Manager at El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, Colorado Springs, Colorado (more than 2000 miles from where Brad works) led Brad Long to meet three other individuals from there. He wrote: "All four gave me an excellent perspective of public health from the county health department perspective. Additionally, I was able to see the public health perspective beyond that of my regional needs. I also gained an understanding of the types of information resources needed for public health, especially statistical related. Additionally, I was given some ideas on how to better build a Public Health Resources website to meet the needs of various public health professionals.” At lunch with his Colorado mentor, Brad and the mentor both agreed that "shadowing was a good experience for the both of us. She also mentioned that she [had been] unaware of what types of information librarians could provide, especially through partnerships of non-affiliated organizations."
Helena VonVille says this of shadowing one of her faculty members: "While our conversation wasn't strictly on the program that we'd attended, it did serve as a springboard for …a quite informative and useful discussion on several topics and issues related to both public health and librarianship. I think I brought about a slight paradigm shift in his mind about the role of librarians-- at least, I hope I did! And he certainly was able to articulate very well some of the problems with the presentations that we attended."
Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu's prior arrangements with two professionals fell through but the stipend's encouragement to network with health professionals helped her "do some great networking on my own."
For a number of years APHA has provided its members with the option of presenting in the Technology Theater. This year, equipped with a desktop computer, a T-1 connection to the Internet and various pieces of multimedia equipment and various presentation software applications to facilitate display of information, the Technology Theater hosted twelve scientific sessions and more than 48 speakers during its three-and-a-half day schedule. Scientific sessions covered the gamut from innovations in distance and public health learning to current school health issues, decision-making and the increasing role of multimedia in persuading the population--especially adolescents--how to improve potentially risky behaviors.
Laura Larsson, APHA program planner for the Technology Theater and a member of the APHA Annual Meeting Planning Committee, acts as facilitator for the sessions in the Technology Theater, introducing speakers and ensuring that all speakers have their fair allotment of time. During this year's meeting, stipend recipients under Laura Larsson's guidance assisted the speakers by loading software, encouraging them if they had butterflies, and amply praising their presentations when their session ended. Larsson proudly reports that this help from these highly-motivated stipend recipients ensured that sessions in the Technology Theater ran very smoothly.
Kris Alpi, along with public health librarian Karyn Pomerantz, presented in one scientific session - Public Health and the Internet of Public Health Education (3145.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9354.htm ). Nancy Schaefer presented a poster, Developing Internet Savvy in Florida's Rural County Public Health Workers (3170.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_47452.htm http://www.library.health.ufl.edu/nancy/APHAposter.htm [whole poster]) on NN/LM-sponsored training sessions at county health departments. To help her shadowee/faculty member with a time conflict, Janet Owens presented the faculty member's paper in the session Enhancing Student Skills and Training through Academic-Practice Partnerships (3000.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8274.htm ). Kay McCloskey, a librarian from the University of Utah, also moderated a session, Quality Management in Public Health(4037.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7854.htm ) and presented a paper titled,"Youth Without Borders: Technology for culturally competent educational programs" in a session called, Serving Teens and Young Adults in Their Local and College Communities (5155.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8887.htm )
At a poster Claire Twose spoke with a doctor who didn't know about the clinical queries and systematic reviews tool available on PubMed. "Giving her this simple pointer seemed to open up the possibility that she would return to the database," Claire noted. Nancy Schaefer suggested in a scientific session, Enhancing Student Skills and Training through Academic-Practice Partnerships (3000.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8274.htm), that academic internship programs investigate the possibility of compensating cooperating health departments for time spent training the students with negotiated library assistance (perhaps a limited number of "free" searches or ILLs) with the consent of all three parties (libraries, health department and MPH/DrPH programs.)
This section deals with specific projects, meetings, and other interactions that have developed between librarians and public health professionals through the 130th APHA meeting.
As a result of contacts made during the APHA meeting Brad Long has begun work on a Public Health web-based pathfinder. From discussion with his shadowee, networking with other individuals, and attendence at scientific sections, he will focus the pathfinder on regional resources and statistical information. After reviewing a Medical Center of Central Georgia poster on the use of lay health advisors, Marcy Brown is currently working with her facility's Education Manager to explore the use of lay diabetes educators to replace Certified Diabetes Educators lost through layoffs.
Helena Vonville was asked by the UTHSC-Houston School of Public Health faculty member whom she shadowed at this meeting to participate in a CE class he is developing. She wants to provide a CE class at MLA on finding good data beyond PubMed, including "navigating the National Center for Health Statistics, Census Bureau and DOT's statistics web pages and EPA's TRI database." She's also considering presenting a poster at APHA 2003 on a project in which she is currently involved.
Richard Wojtowicz hopes to use his contacts with state and local public health professionals to arrange educational sessions around Montana. In these sessions he plans to share some of what he has learned and instruct public health professionals in the use of the Internet, locally available databases, and interlibrary loan services to meet their information needs. As an instructor of MSU Library's online electronic resources course, he plans to exchange tips for online education with faculty from Virginia, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania whom he met at the APHA meeting.
Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu came back from the conference with a handful of cards of people in the Washington, D.C. area who are working in various areas of public health. They include a public health librarian from a D.C. university, an HIV-positive Compliance Treatment Coordinator for a Family and Medical Counseling Service, a Supervisory Community Outreach Specialist from the D.C. Department of Health, a Public Health Specialist from the Food and Drug Administration, and a librarian at the National Library of Medicine. She writes: "Since the conference, I have been in contact with three of these people. I was invited to meetings with public community health workers in D.C. to discuss credentialing.” She was asked to participate in a usability study at the National Library of Medicine and planned to meet with a public health librarian from D.C. for dinner to talk about mutual interests and potential projects. She hopes to cultivate these relationships further and concludes "the benefits will extend beyond the conference and hopefully well into the future."
It is not over yet" declared Ammon Ripple. "I have piles of papers on my desk to sift through - dozens of books to suggest for purchase, Internet sites to add to our Internet resource guides, interesting papers to read, and ideas for improving existing services and initiating new ones for Graduate School of Public Health researchers." He is planning to take some MPH classes and possibly pursue a degree, though not solely as a result of attending the APHA meeting.
Bobbie Carlson also left with a "satchel full of notes, information, and new ideas." In addition, she wrote, “My colleague/shadowee who is a PhD candidate in Public Health and I talked for hours about what we learned at the APHA Meeting, and what we could apply to the REACH 2010 Charleston and Georgetown Diabetes Coalition Project. We are collaborating on an abstract for the 2003 APHA program.”
Upon her return from the APHA meeting, Kris Alpi was asked by her supervisor (on behalf of the Health Commissioner) to compile a list of presentations and poster abstracts from the Department staff to post on the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Intranet.
As a result of following up with one presenter, Claire Twose expects to participate in beta testing of the next version of their Website of lung health indicators. She is exploring taking an MPH, and is completing a foundational course (Problem Solving in Public Health) this January at Johns Hopkins' Bloomburg School of Public Health.
Janet Owens was invited by her shadowee, a University of North Colorado Public Health Nursing faculty member, to participate in implementing a HRSA grant proposed by UNC School of Nursing and the Weld County (Colorado) Department of Public Health to increase the number of nursing students in the baccalaureate program who completed a practicum in public health and to improve the quality of those experiences.
As a result of their attending the Human Rights Special Session together, Marie Ascher and her shadowee will be collaborating to build a web page on human rights resources for the shadowee's students. After co-attending the session Emerging and Recurrent Environmental Health Issues in the Mid-Atlantic Region (3100.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9098.htm ) together, Marie and her shadowee discussed what is happening in Westchester County, NY, and what role their institution might play vis-a-vis the county DOH. She also hopes to enhance her expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) after attending sessions on that topic. Marie will probably be working on the immunization searches and links for the Healthy People 2010 Information Access project, possibly with the assistance of fellow stipend-recipient Nancy Schaefer.
Many of the contributors volunteered to contribute to the Healthy People Information Access project. In fact, Mary Ryan, then librarian with the National Library of Medicine's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR), found so many volunteers she worried about finding sufficient subject experts to match with librarians in verifying the quality of the search results and additional links.
Value of Interpretation in Science: "I have written in the margin of my program, 'Our science loses something in the original. It needs to be interpreted in order to be of benefit to everyone.' I jotted this down during the Calver Lecture given by Kenneth Olden from NIEHS [National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences http://www.niehs.nih.gov/ ]. Olden was quoting James Thurber who when met with a comment that a reader preferred reading his work in French, replied, 'Yes. It loses something in the original.' I think this is an area of librarians and health educators to address, particularly in the arena of health literacy."
Admiration but no wish to be an epidemiologist: "I chatted with 2 city epidemiologists, and talked to a poster presenter from the University of London distance Master's in epidemiology (I had been thinking about applying to this program http://www.gradschools.com/listings/distance/epidemiology_distance.html ). I still have great appreciation for the work done by epidemiologists, but now know that I don't want to be one!"
1. Librarians As Activists: “I learned from Laura Larsson how very involved librarians can get in other professional organizations. Her direction of the Technology Theatre is a model for us all.”
2. Librarians as Researchers: “This meeting drove home my commitment to do collaborative research that demonstrates the importance of library resources and information services in building healthier communities.”
1. Politics as barrier to information resources: "To my surprise, many of the sessions that I attended utilized types of statistical resources that I hadn't considered, especially diverse demographic data. However, most of this type of data was collected at the local level, but is not readily available to others outside the specific organization performing the study. Thus, many public health professionals are being locked out of information sharing due to established political boundaries. This is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed more effectively by librarians."
2. Need to market librarians to public health professionals: "I have gained a valuable understanding about the complex nature of public health. This is includes political, financial, and international stressors at work and how these stressors effect the delivery of public health services. However, I feel that librarians are far from being truly integrated in to this field of expertise. The skills of librarians as information professionals in public health have not been fully integrated into the mindset of public health professionals. Thus, there needs to be more effort on our part to show them what we can provide them as a profession."
3. Resource collection: "I now feel that I am better prepared to develop a resource collection, both electronically and in print."
4. Public health professionals' jobs: "I…have a better understanding of what public health practitioners [do] on a daily basis."
1. Priorities: "I learned the importance of prevention, partnership, networking and —bringing them to the table.'"
2. Understanding of the practitioners: "I got to envision the field from those who are on the front lines everyday, going into people's homes and helping in ways not written into their job descriptions out of sheer compassion".
Core competencies in public health: "I learned a lot about the core competencies initiatives as they related to improving the public health workforce and revising the curricula of schools of public health".
1. Arrival time: "It's advisable to arrive the day before the meeting officially opens so you'll have time to read the program, plan your time and dry-run moving between the different buildings in which sessions will be held. Also, by arriving ON the day, I missed the tone-/agenda-setting opening session and missed sessions I would have liked to go to if I had planned my time better."
2. CE class potential: "I discovered I could take CE classes at APHA, something I had assumed was only open to public health workers. I'll be reading the course listings carefully next year!"
Loose terminology: "I was surprised… at how little informatics/computer issues permeated the field, and how under-developed effective use of literature was, even by many of the practitioners presenting in poster sessions. Both —evidence based'nbsp; and —informatics' were used very loosely some settings."
Librarians know lots!: "From the contacts and exchanges I had with public health practitioners and teachers I gained confidence that even without advanced subject knowledge, the knowledge of literature resources and skills I and others already have as librarians can be very useful to practitioners and educators in public health."
Local user groups: "I came away…with a broader knowledge of who is working locally and what they are interested in which will, I hope be useful for future work activities."
Differing perspectives: "Probably the most interesting thing for [the person I shadowed] and myself was the difference in perspective provided by two government agencies. The CDC's approach was to take in the data [on community based HIV prevention services it funds directly and indirectly] and manipulate it before distributing it-- an approach which is antithetical to the free and ready access to information…. [Her faculty member estimated that] it would take a minimum of 2 years for the data to be distributed, at which point it would be grossly out of date. The other agency-- National Diabetes Education program--…viewed the agencies and groups they worked with as partners; they brought everyone together to share what each had done and … appeared to work hard at creating a collaborative and collegial environment. I found it interesting that the two approaches were so radically different".
The meeting was a marvelous opportunity for all of us to learn, to network and to pick up materials. It was a good opportunity for librarians to note their similarity to public health professionals in terms of serving others and relinquishing traditional services to more recent/higher-profile ones. Bobbie Carlson crystallized this in terms of public health by speaking of the general theme of the meeting: "In today's unsettled world, public health has gotten attention. The challenge now is to leverage the attention to better all of public health's concerns."
Some contributors mentioned specific sessions by name/number. These sessions are listed below alphabetized by subject area and title. Each includes in addition to session name, session #, initials of contributing authors who attended that session and comments specific to that session. Contributor initials are as follows:
AR = Ammon Ripple
BC = Bobbie Carlson
BL = Brad Long
BNC = Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu
BW = Betty Warner
CT = Claire Towse
HV = Helena VonVille
JO = Janet Owens
KA = Kris Alpi
MA = Marie Ascher
MB = Marcy Brown
NS = Nancy Schaefer
RW = Richard Wojtowicz
Meeting the Challenges to Accreditation (4085.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9121.htm ) (BNC, AR)
Community Collaboration and Public/Private Partnerships (3107.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7842.htm ) (BL. AR)
Enhancing Student Skills and Training through Academic-Practice Partnerships (3000.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8274.htm ) (JO, NS)
Strengthening PHN Practice Experience in BSN Programs (3275.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9748.htm ) (JO) I decided to attend this session so I could get as much information as possible about the needs of the two partner groups [with whom I will work on a HRSA grant], practicing public health nurses and schools of nursing, and so that I could plan an informatics component in anticipation of implementing the HRSA grant, thus acting as a third partner in the collaboration. I learned about similar projects in Kentucky, Delaware and Vermont and was able to discuss activities in those programs with my new public health partners at UNC [University of North Colorado] once I returned.
Consumer-directed Care (4127.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9691.htm ) (KA)
Innovations in Distance Learning in Maternal and Child Health Analytic Training (3015.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7703.htm ) (RW)
This session covered design of an online instruction program to replace workshops for teaching analytic skills. It also discussed how the evaluation of an open-enrollment online class presented different challenges than in-person workshops. The speaker emphasized that successful online training required support and reinforcement from one's workplace. Other speakers within this session discussed advantages and disadvantages of distance learning with MCH analytic training programs, admitting some limitations but noting bright prospects for delivering such programs online.
The Many Aspects of Public Health Learning: Learning via Distance (4177.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9735.htm ) (MB, RW)
This session discussed challenges involved in developing and implementing an assessment tool for distance public health doctoral programs and effectiveness of using academic and non-academic partners in the creation of a distance learning program for maternal and child health workers. Also discussed was the importance of building community when conducting distance education programs to improve retention, motivate audiences, and increase persistence. Several techniques for increasing the sense of community were given. (RW)
The speakers in [this] session were some of the better I've heard, both at this conference and others. I had a true appreciation for the course development process after listening to Marlene Eggers from the Rocky Mountain Public Health Education Consortium. (MB)
Small Group Design of Learning and Designing for Health Information on the Web (3345.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9996.htm ) MA
Intimate Partner and Other Family Violence (5048.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7696.htm ) (BNC)
Planning for and Caring during the End of Life (5168.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8282.htm ) (BW)
Designing Healthy Communities: Public Participation for Improved Environments (4082.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9201.htm ) (CT, JO)
A fascinating look at how urban design impacts health problems such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and pedestrian-auto injuries. (JO)
Talks on general environmental health issues… were persuasive but not new arguments for reducing dependence on cars and bedroom communities. …A talk on Maryland's smart growth policy…looked like it would have had the nicest PowerPoint images, of maps and revitalized areas, but ran into significant technical difficulties. (CT)
Emerging and Recurrent Environmental Health Issues in the Mid-Atlantic Region (3100.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9098.htm ) (MA)
Public Health Implications of Community Design and Land Use Choices (4185.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9116.htm ) (NS)
Current Ethical Issues in Public Health (5028.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9324.htm ) (MA)
It's not Just about the Numbers: Ethics and the Practice of Epidemiology (4190.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8930.htm ) (BW, CT)
The "Medical Police” Autonomy and Paternalism in Public Health (4190.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8381.htm ) (CT)
An interesting overlap of public health with law and history. One of the issues being explored seem to be how best to professionalize of the field. Public health has adopted a code of ethics…[and is] further considering whether to develop an oath….
Communicating about Health Issues with Older Adults (4261.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9839.htm ) (KA)
Headlines and Health: How to Work with the Media (3083.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9902.htm ) (BC)
Health Economics Contributed Papers #3: Quality of Care and Policy- The Economic Perspective (5121.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9440.htm ) (CT)
Communications difficulties and the "tension between academic/theoretical approaches and practitioner-focused approaches to public health” made this session contentious.
Health Education Literacy Program (HELP): A health literacy partnership (4021.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_46687.htm ) (KA)
Innovative Models for Evaluating Community Health Promotion
Programs (4297.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9330.htm )
(MA)
The Obesity Crisis: Challenging the Fast Food Culture (5078.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9207.htm )
(MA)
History Session: Live from the City of Sisterly and Brotherly Love: the Founding Mothers and Fathers Public Health and Social Justice (3339.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7775.htm ) (BW)
Pan American Health Organization: Celebrating 100 Years of Health (3113.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9125.htm ) (RW)
International HIV Issues: Africa and Latin America (3110.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9246.htm ) (CT)
The session included several very interesting papers from three African countries and one study from various regions in Latin America. Along with what I think of as traditional public health assessments of infection rates and knowledge of prevention strategies there was one presentation about the health implications of a holistic neighborhood mediation service. The talk focused on "Local Capacity Governance” in South Africa, which has reduced violence in some of the poorest and most underserved townships. I was impressed with the breadth of activities that are connected to public health.
Preventing AIDS/HIV: Are Women Free to Protect Themselves? (3214 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8841.htm ) (JO)
Although [this session] was intrinsically interesting, the most useful information for me was a study design that I will be able to apply to my own research project in progress. Specifically, one of the presenters had conducted oral interviews with African-American women in a poor, rural Florida county, asking what methods they used to protect themselves from AIDS/HIV. She taped the sessions, then coded all of the responses in order to derive meaningful categories--a method that I will be able to use for an analysis of my material, which is comprised of lengthy essay responses.
Bringing Human Rights Home: Using International Human Rights to Promote Public Health in the US (4084.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9203.htm ) (MA)
Building a National Health Information Infrastructure that Serves the Public, Health Care Providers and Population Health (5085.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8824.htm ) (MA)
Evaluation, Evidence-Based Practice, GIS and a Portal (3223.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9339.htm ) (KA, MB, RW AR, MA)
Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project" outlined the project whereby librarians and other public health professionals can retrieve Healthy People 2010-related research through the NLM website. Pre-formulated PubMed search strategies and links to evidence-based clinical and community preventive service guidelines were demonstrated. This presentation showcased the value of GIS [Geographic Information System] technology in monitoring and evaluating key MCH [Maternal Child Health] indicators and suggested applications in other public health areas. Gale Dutcher, in particular, stimulated my interest in exploring the health education outreach activities that librarians can (and do) lead.
Healthy People 2010: Leading Health Indicators as a Framework for Health Improvement (5007.00 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8843.htm) (BL)
Improving Decision Making Through the Use of Health Information (4104.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9734.htm ) (CT, JO, RW)
This session revealed challenges and opportunities one might expect in establishing a Computerized Patient Record System for the Underserved and presented sources for partnership opportunities. Presenters also identified funding sources for IT programs in public health departments, provided strategies to obtain funding, and listed the challenges and barriers to funding. (RW)
A DC Government initiative used VA Electronic Patient Record Software in three clinics. The Wisconsin system, using the Web to allow three parties to negotiate program outcomes in contracts with local health department, is a creative and effective use of the Web. Knowing which clinics are involved in the DC trial of the electronic patient record and having contact information for the project will be useful for future activities. (CT)
Informatics and Concept Mapping in Health Care (4110.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8931.htm )
(BC)
Innovative Informatics Applications in Maternal and Child Health (3090.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8715.htm )
(JO)
Presented some inspiring uses of interactive technology and databases in the delivery of health information.
MCH Informatics in Research, Policy, and Practice (3049.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8703.htm ) (MA)
Reengineering Information Technology in Public Health Departments (3013.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8822.htm ) (MB)
Although I enjoyed learning about novel funding and training strategies when building an IT infrastructure from scratch, the session title was misleading. I was expecting to learn about IT initiatives specific to public health, rather than a generalist approach to funding and training.
Utilizing Modern Technology, The Web, GIS and Concept Mapping as Health Care Tools (4022.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8653.htm ) (HV, MA)
(The contributor and her shadowee had a wonderful discussion about both the program and the role of librarians.) He felt that [this program, as many others, was] …a waste of time--a laundry list of criteria was the presentation. The presenter was able to delineate the issues quite well, but there was no substance once he had done so.
Developing Mental Health Policy: The Philadelphia Story (3053.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9885.htm ) (BW, BL)
The Impact of September 11 on Mental Health (3262.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9667.htm ) (BC)
National Public Health Performance Standards: Does Your State and Community Measure Up? (4233.0 –Satellite Broadcast--http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9901.htm ) (BNC, AR)
Policy Issues in Public Health (5032.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7864.htm ) (CT) Those issues included:
1) Competition as a public health problem [reflections from a recently published book]
2) Socioeconomic disparities in health [a quantitative analysis of risk behaviors and access--a standard health services research analysis using state-level sources, in this case the 2000 data from the Kentucky Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System]
3) State cervical cancer screening mandates as predictors of rates of utilization of Pap tests
Public Health and the Internet of Public Health Education (3145.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9354.htm ) (KA, RW, CT, AR, BNC)
This Technology Theater session demonstrated how to integrate quality criteria into health website development and operations. Effective evaluation techniques for health websites were also shown using the example of healthfinder.gov. The presentation included tips on tailoring a website on sexuality and relationships especially for an adolescent audience, how to conduct a promotional campaign for the site, and how to incorporate Web-based health information into health education. The session continued with advice on strategies to overcome elder-related and working class barriers to Internet use through partnerships and support from the private and public sectors. In conclusion, funding sources and un/successful development of public health information outreach activities were enumerated.
Public Health Professionals in the 21st Century: A Challenge and an Opportunity for Education (4239.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9195.htm ) (BNC)
Building Public Infrastructure (5076.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9205.htm ) (AR, BL)
Building A National Health Information Infrastructure that Serves the Public, Health Care Providers and Population Health (5085.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8824.htm ) (AR, NS)
One presentation, "Training Competencies for Public Health Departments”, provided the reasoning behind the need for informatics training: Training in technology is a way to maximize productivity (same # of PH employees but more work to do these days.) Areas needing training: email, use of Internet, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, project management software and the dreaded SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and SAS (Statistical Analysis System) programs. The speaker suggested contracting with a Training Vendor but librarians could… [certainly] do the Internet use training! (NS)
I attended a session on building the public health infrastructure and the challenges that workers face on the front lines. One other session on building a national health information infrastructure provided an interesting vision of a future in which everyone would have a personal health record, a provider-based medical record and it would all tie in to community-based data repositories - fascinating from an information perspective and from a public health perspective, but with all sorts of yet-unanswered privacy and confidentiality questions. (AR)
Quality Management in Public Health (4037.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_7854.htm )
(CT, NS)
Project management within health departments. One presentation was essentially a company representative talking about a computer system to help avoid medication errors, which one would have expected in the exhibit hall, although to be fair it was not represented as anything else.
Great quote from one presentation: What Gets Measured Gets Done. Its most applicable advice: Establish boundaries for how broad your program should go and resist getting sidetracked to other projects--no matter how noble--until you've accomplished your main goals. The speaker, Deputy Health Commissioner of the Philly Dept. of Public Health, included in her list of activities for managing quality improvement:
Current School Health Issues
(4017.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9736.htm )
(JO, RW)
Social Capital and its Interconnectedness with Health (4248.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8651.htm ) (BW) Social Capital and Public Health (5075.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9204.htm )
(CT) Cultural Aspects of Alternative and Complementary Health Practices (3290.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8501.htm )
(BC) Gay and Bisexual Men's Health (5181.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9580.htm )
(AR) LGBT Youth Research (4276.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9579.htm )
(AR)
Deafness and Communication Disabilities (5158.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8346.htm )
(BNC, NS) Diabetes: Addressing the Needs of Culturally Diverse Populations (3020.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8855.htm )
(BC) Innovative Community-based Approaches to Program
and Policy Development Aimed at Reducing Disparities in Primary Care and
Prevention (4021.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8159.htm )
(BC) Integrating the Health Care of the Incarcerated into Community
Services (3303.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8649.htm )
(MA) Latino Demographics and Barriers to Care (5047.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8039.htm )
(BL) Serving Cultural and Linguistic Communities in
the Community (3230.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8166.htm )
(BW) Religion, Spirituality and Health (4106.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8386.htm )
(BW) Issues in Public Health Statistics (5140.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9507.htm )
(BNC) Early-Onset Neonatal Group B Streptococcus Study
- A Survey of Hospital Policy and Cases in New York City (KA) Basic Course on Response to Terrorism for Health Providers and Responders (4000.1 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_10029.htm )
(BW) Preparedness for and Repercussions of Bio-Terrorism (4180.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8644.htm )
(JO) Terrorism and International Human Rights (3014.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8850.htm )
(CT) Presented
information on legal and human rights issues and the implications of accepting
new bioterrorism funds for public health. Developing a Community-based Infrastructure to Address the Policies and
Politics of Tobacco Control (3231.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_8871.htm )
(CT) Urban Research Centers: Where the Public and Public Health Meet (4083.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9202.htm )
(BL, BC) Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) collaborations took the stage
to highlight the Urban Research Centers. Introduced by Dr. David Satcher, the
panel brought together the Detroit, New York and Seattle projects. I was most
impressed by the use of technology to convey the local, cultural context of
each project, the projects' sharing of the presentation by topic, and
the reported outcomes. It is important that the results and lessons learned
from new approaches and methodologies are grounded in a balanced research agenda
within a collaborative, equitable partnership, and that all partners can use
the research to inform and drive action. With Dr. Greene's call to think
outside the conventional research box and community development box, these
projects demonstrate that a new day has dawned in achieving healthier communities.
BC [Ed. note: See also Bobbie Carlson's added comments in the Bringing It Forward
section]. Calver Lecture (3156.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9921.htm )
(MA) Practical Uses of Knowledge and Power: Cases from the Field (3023.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9291.htm )
(BC) Writing/Peer-Reviewing for the American Journal of Public Health: New
and Diverse Opportunities (3081.0 http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/session_9896.htm )
(MB, NS)
Presenters demonstrated the link between student health, improved
behavior, and increased academic achievement--useful in arguing before school
boards, taxpayers for increased or maintained funding for physical health programs
in schools. They also showed how to 1) collect baseline demographics to help
identify community health care needs, 2) develop an inventory of public and
private sector resources/programs and coalitions, and 3) create a strategy
to work effectively with school systems to deliver access to care and health
and safety education programs.
SOCIAL CAPITAL
…the story of the Philadelphia Mural project, a glowing demonstration
of how effective one person with a new vision can be in the right place at
the right time
SPECIFIC POPULATIONS
Two presentations covered etiquette of research with this population
(respect their intelligence being foremost) and a commercial interpreting service
available to emergency rooms when interpreters don't want to come in at 2 a.m.
A third presentation included some interesting points: Most deaf children have
hearing parents who are largely unaware of the "issues” their kids
face but want the doctor to try to discover what caused the hearing loss. Etiology
of deafness is more difficult to determine in adults because some characteristics
of deafness may not become evident until later in life. Adults often don't
recall and rarely request "work-ups” on the causes of their disease.
Deaf adults are, however, more interested in the effect of deafness on their
insurability and employment than even the parents of deaf kids. The M.D. presenting
this info acknowledged that medical records of deaf people are often incomplete
and/or contain speculation. (NS)
SPIRITUALITY & HEALTH
STATISTICS
SURVEILLANCE
TERRORISM
TOBACCO
A creative use of relatively simple Web technology blended effectively
with a public relations program. The project led to policy and budget
changes in the state of Maine. The American Lung Association of Maine
developed "lung health indicators” and posted Maine's results—which
were dismal—on their Website, and used the information to lobby for a
major tobacco tax increase and a relatively large share of tobacco settlement
funds. Among other outcomes a 39% decrease in teen smoking has occurred
since the campaign began.
URBAN HEALTH
MISCELLANEOUS
Session title in print final program differed from handout and online title of "Peer-reviewing for AJPH”, which was more accurate since this was a reviewer recruitment rally rather than a "scientific session." (NS)
http://mainelung.org/learn_with_us/lhi/Lhi_intro.htm - American Lung Association of Maine's lung health indicators
http://www.blackberry.net - Blackberry wireless email
http://www.crrucs.org/ - Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (under construction) [Ed. note: Link no longer active, 3/17/04]
http://www.cmwf.org/ - Commonwealth Fund
http://www.epa.gov/airnow/ - Environmental Protection Agency's new Air Now (air quality) page—Spring 2003 proposed additional page http://www.epa.gov/airnow/smoke
http://www.fatherhood.org/ - The Fatherhood Initiative, fatherhood programs (website includes a Best Practices page.)
http://www.growthhouse.org/ - Growth House: "improving care for the dying…the Internet's leading portal for end of life care"
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/ - Harvard School of Public Health's Health Literacy Studies (has a PowerPoint overview of health literacy, research reports, innovative health education materials, a "how to” section on creating and assessing materials, insights from practitioners and patients and links to related health and literacy websites.)
http://www.healthfinder.gov/justforyou/ - Healthfinder's Just for You pages focus on health concerns specific to different ethic groups: Asians and Pacific Islanders, AmerIndians and Alaskan Natives, Blacks or African Americans, and Hispanics (as well as on other groups like teens, men, diabetics, community leaders.)
http://www.icihs.org - International Center for the Integration of Health & Spirituality. Newly updated website. Contains announcement of upcoming research conference "Integrating Research on Spirituality and Health and Well-Being into Service Delivery: A Research Conference" at NIH, Bethesda, MD, April 1-3, 2003.
http://www.iom.edu/ - Institute of Medicine
http://www.kff.org/ - Kaiser Family Foundation Online
http://www.Manhattan-institute.org/ - Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
http://nnlm.gov/partners/hp/ - National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)'s Information Access project (PubMed searches and recommended links for specific objectives in Healthy People 2010.)
http://www.teenwire.com/ - created by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
http://www.progressivehn.org/ - Progressive Health Net. Its claim: "a resource for those interested in working on… issues of economic equality and health care”
http://www.phf.org/BioterrorismPreparednessResources.pdf - Public Health Foundation's Resources to Help States and Communities Build Workforce Capacity in Bioterrorism and Core Public Health Competencies
http://www.rwjf.org/index.jsp - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
http://www.safeyouth.org/ - National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center
Aging with grace: What the nun study teaches us about leading longer, healthier, and more meaningful lives. Snowdon, David. (NY: Bantam Books, 2001)
Evidence-based Public Health. Brownson, Ross C., et al (Oxford U Press, 2003.)
The Future of Public Health. Institute of Medicine, 1988 . Like Healthy People 2010 but for the public heath profession rather than the health of the people in general. It assess the accomplishments made since 1988 and the challenges--old and new--still facing the profession.
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology . Postman, Neil. (Knopf, 1993.)