On Tuesday, representatives from over 20 national public health organizations met in Washington, DC to develop a framework for creating a recognizable brand for public health. This meeting was a follow up to a meeting held in August 2008, during which there was agreement that a brand for public health should be developed for use by all public health organizations and would compliment current promotion and marketing initiatives.

On Wednesday, August 26, SOPHAS launched a new application cycle which will be open until August 2010.   Thirty-four schools of public health are currently participating in SOPHAS, including three new participants: San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health, University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and University of Georgia College of Public Health.  A new and exciting feature for applicants from the 2008-2009 admissions cycle is the ability to update and resubmit their application for the 2009-2010 cycle. 

Public Health Reports (PHR) is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal offering articles in public health practice and research as well as viewpoints/commentaries. A key resource for the public health community is the placement of ads in the journal. The journal is distributed to member schools, the research community, academic libraries, government agencies and many health related industries. Advertising in PHR is an excellent way to connect with practitioners, scholars and students of public health. Click here for more information on placing an ad for the November/December issue and here to view the upcoming issue’s Table of Contents.

On August 26-27, Dean Audrey Gotsch (UMDNJ) and Dr. Bill Keck, Project Co-Chairs, led a focus group discussing Preparedness and Response Core Competencies. Focus group members developed a draft list of competencies and provided comments for the project’s Leadership Group to consider during their meeting on August 31 in Atlanta.

ASPH President and CEO Dr. Harrison C. Spencer issued the following statement on the death of Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA): "Senator Kennedy was committed to improving people’s lives through his efforts to reform the health care system, his passion for ensuring access to high quality education, as well as his longstanding support for Title VII, biomedical research, and programs to protect the environment.  He was a champion and advocate for public health.  I join the entire academic public health community and so many others in deeply mourning the passing of this influential legislator."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the establishment of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).

ASPH hosts a public health advocacy section on its web site, which provides an opportunity to share information on advocacy efforts with all ASPH members. The site also highlights information on policy priorities, including several policy papers exploring the nation’s public health priorities, and provides links to sources of legislative information and resources and tips on how to contact Members of Congress. ASPH will also use the web site to post alerts on activities on the Hill that are critical to public health. Visit www.asph.org/advocacy for more information.

ASPH regularly provides members and Friday Letter readers with information about grant opportunities. New opportunities are listed each week in the "Funding Opportunities" section of the Friday Letter. Readers can access a full listing of grant notices by visiting the "Funding for Faculty" section of the ASPH web site. You may want to bookmark this page (www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=747). Listed below are grant opportunities that have been posted within the last seven days.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is soliciting applications to support a national and international pesticide safety program to assess and develop health and safety programs aimed at reducing exposure to pesticides for agricultural workers, pesticide applicators, growers, health providers, pesticide producers and retailers, as well as local, state, national and international organizations and government agencies, and other members of the agricultural community.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 is soliciting proposals for a pilot project to support agricultural community transition from high-risk pesticides to the use of reduced-risk methods of agricultural pest control.

This FOA issued by the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), encourages Research Project Grant for Secondary Data Analysis (R21) applications from institutions/organizations that propose to conduct secondary data analyses utilizing existing database resources.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces its continued interest in supporting conferences through its Small Grant Program for Conference Support. AHRQ seeks to support conferences that help to further its mission to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces its continued interest in supporting conferences through its Large or Recurring Grant Program for Conference Support. AHRQ seeks to support conferences that help to further its mission to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.

This FOA from the National Institutes of Health encourages Research Project Grant (R01) applications that propose research on the roles of nutrition and physical activity in the development, prevention, and management of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or pulmonary diseases.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Public Agency of Barcelona, in collaboration with the Pompeu Fabra University, have established a Johns Hopkins Fall Institute in Health Policy and Management to be held in Barcelona, Spain from November 2-21.

Please note that grants under this RFA may involve the collection of Geospatial Information. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is offering Graduate Fellowships for master’s and doctoral level students in environmental fields of study.

The purpose of the fellowship is to attract individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds in medical, biological, social, behavioral, and policy sciences to develop a new generation of academic leaders in tobacco control. Upon completion of training, fellows will be well positioned to be active participants in crucial policy debates about the future development and implementation of tobacco control interventions. 

The American Committee on Arthropod-Borne Viruses (ACAV) of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) announces the Kelly Labell Student Travel Award. The award will be made to one graduate student who is conducting research on Eastern Equine encephalitis and/or other mosquito-borne viral diseases.

The article, "Full Implementation of Computerized Physician Order Entry and Medication-related Quality Outcomes: A study of 3364 Hospitals," appeared in the American Journal of Medical Quality. The authors of the article are Lister Hill Scholars Dr. Feliciano B. Yu (UAB – School of Medicine), Dr. Nir Menachemi, UAB – Health Care Organization and Policy, Dr. Eta S. Berner, UAB – Health Services Administration, Dr. Jeroan J. Allison, UAB – School of Medicine, Dr. Norman W. Weissman, UAB – Health Services Administration and Dr. Thomas K. Houston, UAB – School of Medicine. Dr. Feliciano Yu can be reached at FYu@peds.uab.edu.

Dean John Finnegan and Dr. Diana Harvey, Assistant Dean for External Affairs, from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health had an article published in the August 2009 issue of the Minnesota Physician, The Independent Medical Business Newspaper.  "Public health on the front lines: Reframing and expanding the health reform discussion" featured ASPH documents regarding prevention reform.

The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) has expanded its support for comprehensive HIV services to Qacha’s Nek District in Lesotho, a mountainous area with some of the most difficult to reach health facilities in the country.

Starting September 1, 2009, the University of Texas School of Public Health (UTSPH) will embark on a two-year expansion plan to transform public health in Texas and beyond. The plan includes increasing the student body by 25 percent and increasing faculty positions by at least 10 positions.

The University of Kentucky College of Public Health's Center for Public Health Systems and Services Research (CPHSSR) has been awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Medicine, business, policy and public health are talking. Are you?  Join the global health conversation this fall at the Colorado School of Public Health, Center for Global Health. The Center for Global Health and Physician Assistants for Global Health are hosting the second Annual Global Health Symposium (see here) from October 1-3, at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. The Symposium features leaders in primary care, dental medicine, business, public health, among many other disciplines; meeting in order to discuss the breadth and depth issues facing global health.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health have received a three-year, $600,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a better way to disseminate information to AIDS patients who are at high risk of developing infections from the foods they eat.

Nearly 100 new graduate students turned up for an old-fashioned barbecue, complete with picnic blankets, on the back lawn of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health (SPH).

The University of Texas School of Public Health (UTSPH) is proud to announce the return of an accomplished alumna, Dr. Barbara Tilley, to lead the Division of Biostatistics. She assumed this role as of July 1, 2009.

Ten years ago, the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pulled together its considerable number of service and outreach programs, creating the North Carolina Institute for Public Health within the School. Dr. Ed Baker serves as the Director of the Institute.

The University of Georgia’s College of Public Health recently announced the appointment of Dr. Phaedra S. Corso as head of the department of health policy and management. Dr. Corso earned a PhD from Harvard University with a concentration in Health Policy.  She has considerable public health experience having worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for nearly 15 years before coming to the University of Georgia.

Dr. John Ehiri has been appointed as the director of the Division of Health Promotion Sciences of the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.  "Professor Ehiri is an exceptional scholar who will bring tremendous distinction to an already outstanding division.  His extensive experience in global health will greatly benefit our public health initiatives," noted Dean Iman Hakim of the College of Public Health.

Dr. Din Chen was recently appointed as the Karl E. Peace Endowed Eminent Scholar Chair in Biostatistics in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University.  Dr. Chen’s most recent appointment was as a tenured full professor with the department of mathematics and statistics at South Dakota State University and the department of surgery, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota. Dr. Chen holds the PhD in statistics from the University of Guelph in Canada, a MS in applied statistics, Hunan University, China and a BS in applied mathematics from Jishou University, China. 

This week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced her intent to appoint Helene Gayle, MD, MPH to serve as the Chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.  Secretary Sebelius made the announcement in Atlanta at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference.

The CDC Behavioral Surveillance Branch (BSB) has released data for Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends, or SMART BRFSS, which provides an online tool that allows users to compare selected data for states, cities and counties, from 2002-2008.  This web site provides information comparing the prevalence of numerous health conditions and health behaviors -- binge drinking, asthma, hypertension, obesity, physical activity, smoking, for instance -- across counties, cities and states.

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) is hosting a series of on-line iterative dialogues for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entitled the National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). 

According to a press release on the H1N1 virus by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the H1N1 flu virus could infect between 30 to 50 percent of the U.S. population this fall and winter and could kill from 30,000 to 90,000 people. This outbreak could result in symptoms being exhibited in 20-40 percent of the population, as many as 1.8 million hospital admissions and between 50 and 100 percent of ICU beds being used for swine flu patients. The report also predicts that the outbreak could infect more people than the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, but claim fewer lives.

The European Union’s (EU) REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical) legislation is intended as a comprehensive safety evaluation for commercial chemicals used in consumer products that are traded in Europe at amounts more than one ton per year. However, implementation of the regulation may require 54 million research animals and 9.5 billion Euros ($13.4 billion USD) over the next 10 years, which represents 20 times the number of animals and six times the cost anticipated in previous estimates, according to an analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

ASPH will regularly provide members and Friday Letter readers with links to other electronic newsletters that may be of interest to the public health community. Links to E-newsletters will be added to a web page found at www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=924. This week’s additions include:

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is pleased to share the following Call for Proposals for Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR): http://www.rwjf.org/cfp/phssr. Approximately $2.4 million will be awarded to up to 12 applicants through this solicitation. Awards will fund projects in the priority areas of Organizational Structure and Authority, Public Health Finance, Public Health Department Performance, Quality Improvement and Accreditation, and Evidence-Based Practice and Return on Investment. The National Network of Public Health Institutes will serve as the Administrative Service Organization and facilitate this Call for Proposals.

The MCH EPI conference will be held December 9-11, 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay in Tampa, FL. This year’s featured keynote speaker is David Barker, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRS, Physician and Professor, University of Southampton, UK (Clinical Epidemiology), Professor - Oregon Health and Science University (Department of Medicine).

The objective of the award is to enhance and facilitate the development of scientific linkages between Panama, nations of Central America, tropical and sub-tropical South America and the Caribbean Islands, Mexico and the United States and Canada through support of short-term travel for young research investigators from these regions for the purposes of:

The Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health is seeking nominations for its 2009 Innovative Public Health Curriculum Award. This award was created by the society to applaud the important role public health graduate education plays in the development and maintenance of a strong, active and well-prepared public health profession, and to acknowledge that schools and programs of public health and their faculty develop and implement creative public health educational offerings that bridge the gap between public health academia and practice. Nominations are due by Monday, August 31. Please see the Call for Nominations for complete information.

The Prevention Research Centers - Healthy Aging Network, a program funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will host a conference, "Promoting Environmental and Policy Change to Support Healthy Aging," September 15-16 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's (UNC) William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education.

New!
Volume 124
Issue 5
September/October 2009

Public Health Reports (PHR) is an informative and accessible resource for practitioners, teachers and students of public health. The Journal provides important research and key discussions on the major issues confronting the public health community. Subscribe Today! Click here to advertise in the Journal.

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming "Meet the Author!" web cast sponsored by Public Health Reports (PHR), which will take place on Tuesday, September 15 at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern). Dr. Kevin Sullivan, associate professor in the department of epidemiology and global health at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, will discuss his recently published research in PHR, "Multivitamin Use in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women."