The following guest post is by Elizabeth Krause, Senior Program Officer and Director of the Health Leadership Fellows program, and Jenn Whinnem, Communications Officer and Class of 2012 Fellow at the Connecticut Health Foundation.

Every Connecticut resident should have access to quality health care. But it’s not that simple. Because of language and cultural barriers, inherent societal bias, and other factors, health disparities exist in racial and ethnic populations, even when there is ready access to health care.

Because the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is committed to ending health disparities, every year, we select up to 20 diverse individuals to participate in our Health Leadership Fellows program to build public will for health equity.

While there are many leadership development programs across the country, what makes our program unique is our commitment to developing the leadership skills of people of color who are working on this issue in Connecticut. The focus on health equity provides a real-world context for skill development for a group whose leadership contributions have historically been under recognized.

Let’s face it: the rising tide does not lift all ships. Connecticut needs strong potential leaders of color to advance the issue of health equity. Our network includes 140 fellows who are ready, willing, and able to act as opportunities arise. We cultivate our leaders by providing opportunities where they can:

• Learn from state and national health leaders, policy-makers, trainers, and their peers
• Develop an understanding of the theory behind systems change as part of realizing health equity (rather than addressing equity issues one person at a time)
• Discover their own personal leadership style and how to work with other styles in multi-disciplinary coalitions
• Communicate with strategic, values-based messaging to effectively influence others around this issue
• Expand their professional network across sectors and industries.

We’re interested in leaders from all walks of life – healthcare, education, business, community. Our strongest requirements are a passion for achieving health equity and commitment to learning whether you are an emerging or seasoned professional.

Don’t just take it from me. Our Principal Consultant Heidi Brooks shares what you can expect – even on the first day! – as a participant in the program:

Hear the Class of 2012 talk about what drew them to the program, and read about some of the projects from the 2011 Class.

Are you excited yet? If yes, your written application form and a third-party recommendation letter are due by April 2, 2012. Visit this page to learn more!

Today marks the beginning of the last month of the year, but it also is a reminder for us about the importance of bringing HIV/AIDS to an end. Today is World AIDS Day. A time for education and action regarding the disease that still is affecting many worldwide.

Phil Wilson, CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, had this to say in a statement on World AIDS Day:

We are at a deciding moment. We have the tools to end the AIDS epidemic in America. We can do more than imagine the end of the epidemic: We can make it happen.  We have new diagnostic tools, new surveillance capabilities, new prevention strategies, new treatment options, and a new understanding of how to interrupt acquisition and transmission. The question is no longer can we end AIDS? The question is: Do we have the moral will and the political leadership to do it. Will we use these newly acquired and in some cases primitive tools efficiently, compassionately and effectively?

I feel that quote can be applied to much in public health and glad Wilson made that part of his statement. He also mentions the national strategy that was developed to combat HIV/AIDS that President Obama put into place. Despite the tremendous amount of politics and commercialization that get attached to these health issues, we must remain focused on the goal of prevention and bringing them to an end.

For those of you active on Twitter, the official hashtag for World AIDS Day is #WAD11

Here are some other highlights for World AIDS Day:

• Phil Wilson’s entire statement
• Crowd Out AIDS initiative (social media/crowdsourcing)
• AIDS.gov resources (@Aidsgov on Twitter)

Today celebrates the first annual national Food Day. I caught up with Lilia Smelkova, Campaign Manager with Food Day,  to get the full scoop…

What is Food Day?

Food Day is a national grassroots campaign for healthy, affordable food produced in humane, sustainable and just way.  Food Day is modeled after Earth Day, and will take place anually on October 24 with people across the country celebrating by organizing or attending events, big and small–on college campuses, at schools, in public parks, at farmers markets. Major themes include health, sustainable agriculture, cutting subsidies to agribusiness, and eradicating food deserts. Food Day aims to educate the general public, influence local and state food policies, and give a platform for diverse to dialogue and work together. But more important, Food Day aims to inspire Americans to change their diets for the better and start cooking for families again.

After months of organizing by countless people, there will be more than 2,000 events from coast to coast in 50 states on and around October 24.  Local governments are seizing the opportunity to announce new food policy initiatives. The National Archives will be hosting a Food Day Open House, and there will be an “Eat In” in Times Square in New York, with guests Morgan Spurlock, Marion Nestle, and 50 other food leaders and community activists. You can learn more about Food Day priorities and look for events around the country here: www.foodday.org.

What is the significance of October 24th?

We wanted to select a date that would give some time for schools and campuses to organize activities, not too close to Earth Day, to give a possibility for organizers to participate and leave time to plan, and also be close to the World Food Day, one of our partners, celebrating with actions on world hunger issues and addressing domestic food access.

Dozens of school districts and hundreds of campuses are celebrating countrywide. Portland Public Schools will serve a special meal of locally-raised, grass-fed beef and unlimited fruits and vegetables  for kids from 30,000 families. Every school in Denver will have a special Food Day menu. Schools in Boston, Boulder County, Los Angeles, and Detroit will celebrate as well. The Real Food Challenge has involved more than 200 college campuses in dinning hall events, teach-ins, conferences, picnics and more.

How did the Food Day folks settle on the 6 Food Day principles?

Food Day’s goal is nothing less than to transform the American diet—to inspire a broad movement involving people from every walk of life. In other words, we want America to eat real. The 6 Food Day principles were selected to give a broad umbrella, a platform for groups working on all aspects of food system to collaborate together, public health advocates, environmental activists and farm workers justice movement. We have based the selection on a survey made earlier this year when we asked thousands of respondents, including our advisory board members, what were the priorities that wanted to see addressed by Food Day.

Food Day’s 6 principles are:

What can our readers do today to participate in Food Day?

First of all, attend a Food Day event. If you haven’t found a Food Day event near you, visit FoodDay.org to search by our map or by typing in your zip code. (Be patient as events take time to load in the map—a lot of people are visiting right now!). Besides events in public places, Food Day events will take place at homes.  For inspiration, we are offering a free Food Day recipe booklet featuring recipes from Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Emeril Lagasse, Nina Simonds, and other renown chefs.

If you want to create your own Food Day event at home with family or friends, there is still time. We have a great dinner party kit collection of totally delicious recipes from celebrity chefs to get you started. If you want to raise money for a local food-related charity, you can enter a contest led by Epicurious.com—winning entries will get their donations matched up to $1,000! We even have tips for Halloween, and Food Day pumpkin carving stencils. We encourage everyone to sign the Food Day petition asking Congress for better food policies.

And of course you can keep up with Food Day by liking it on Facebook, following CSPI on Twitter, or by using the #FoodDay hashtag.

What can we expect from Food Day in the coming years?

Food Day will be October 24—this year and in years to come. Food Day aims to become for the Food Movement what Earth Day has been for the Environmental Movement, bringing food education into school curriculum, helping to improve diets, and giving the much needed support to sustainable agriculture.  Food Day will inspire hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans to change their diets for the better, and to push for improved food policies. Although with Food Day, actively making change – even for one day – can have a tremendous impact, we also see efforts on improving policies. Rhode Island and Montgomery County, Maryland are announcing the formation of the food policy councils on Food Day. In California, dozens of nonprofit organizations have come together to promote a petition campaign to generate support for a smarter Farm Bill.

–

Bridgette Collado (aka, @bcollado)

Lilia Smelkova worked for Slow Food International in Italy for 10 years and initiated the Slow Food network in Eastern and Central Europe and Canada. She supervised international communications and directed the launch of an international education program that birthed the first European network of sustainable school cafeterias. She also worked on the core team that planned the first Terra Madre, a meeting of food communities from 150 countries. Lilia holds a BA from Minsk Linguistics University in Belarus (she is fluent in Italian, Russian, English, French, and Spanish), a Master’s in languages from Turin University in Italy, and a certificate in environmental management from UC Berkeley, where she co-authored a nutrition education study. She recently guided an expedition of Italian scientists along the Silk Road to research food preferences and genetics. She believes that food is among the best ways to experience the world, especially Uzbek pilaf, Pamir mountain mulberries, and Transylvanian jams.

Guest post by Ana Tellez, a Senior Health Writer at CommunicateHealth. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Communication & Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College where she is researching the intersection of technology design and health literacy.

Greetings, Pulse + Signalers! This week the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is hosting its annual meeting in New York City with numerous heads of state, CEOs, global leaders, and Hollywood stars wearing their nonprofit leadership hats (see the featured list of attendees here). President Bill Clinton established CGI in 2005 with the mission “to inspire, connect, and empower a community of global leaders to forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.” CGI does this by facilitating cross-sector partnerships through its Member Meetings – like the one this week – and its Commitments to Action by Members.

The focus of this year’s meeting is threefold: jobs and generating employment, sustainable consumption, and girls/women. Each of these topics is in its own way tethered to issues of public healthand social justice – with certain breakout sessions explicitly focusing on these issues. To give you a taste of what’s in store, here are a few sessions I’m looking forward to:

• The World at 7 Billion: A Member Conversation with President Clintonwith the one and only Bill
• Sustainable Food Systemswith remarks by Nigel Harris, CEO of FARM-Africa and others
• Form and Function: Designing for Humanity with participants such as Jocelyn Wyatt, Executive Director of IDEO.org
• Reproducing Success: Game-changing Interventions in Women’s Health with remarks by Elizabeth Maguire, President and CEO of Ipas and others
• Designing Technologies for Economic Empowerment with participants such as Geena Davis, Founder of The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Follow me on Twitter at @AnaTellezwhere I’ll be live-tweeting Tuesday through Thursday using the event’s hashtag of #cgi2011,and tune into the Pulse + Signal blog for a full-length post of the event in the coming days!

On June 9, 2011, sanofi-aventis U.S. announced the “sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data, Design, Diabetes” at the National Institute of Health’s Health Data Initiative Forum. The challenge integrates open data with a human-centered view into diabetes, and will award $220,000 in total prize money.  Guest blogger Michele Polz provides details on how this challenge came to be, and the future of similar challenges to change the face of healthcare. 

The room was packed and there was a buzz in the air. It was June 9, and I was at the Health Data Initiative Forum, an effort to accelerate momentum for the public use of data and innovation to improve health. Hosted by the Institute of Medicine and Health and Human Services, the event brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs, technologists, data mavens, and government officials driving innovation in health and healthcare.

As the Head of Patient Solutions, Diabetes, Sanofi-Aventis U.S., I couldn’t think of a better place to announce the “sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data, Design, Diabetes.”

For those who might not be familiar, diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease that has reached epidemic proportion in the US and at current rates the CDC estimates that by the year 2050 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes.  It is known as a “self-managed” disease, requiring people with diabetes to frequently check their blood sugar levels, administer treatments, and keep track of a lot of numbers. In one sense, people living with diabetes are the epitome of the quantified self movement.

“Innovation” has many definitions, so for this challenge we are looking for a solution that brings together the strength of insight enabled by open data sets and the empathetic connection provided through human-centered design to meaningfully help people living with diabetes in the US.

We were equally interested in ensuring that the best data-driven and human centered solutions receive more than a token award. We want to see solutions come to market to complement the treatments and devices that are currently available. It is also important to note that as an open innovation challenge, all intellectual property and equity will remain the property of its creators throughout the entire competition.

sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data Design Diabetes from Data Design Diabetes on Vimeo.

These principles helped shape the staged approach that we feel is necessary to change the face of healthcare:

July 1, 2011 – July 31, 2011: The competition is open and submissions are accepted via entry form on the website: www.datadesigndiabetes.com. Note that the submission is a concept only with potential to be prototyped within 4 weeks.

August 5, 2011: A panel of esteemed judges will select 5 semi-finalists, who will be awarded $20,000 to build a prototype.

August 8 to September 2, 2011: The 5 semifinalists will take part in a “virtual incubator” where they will be provided advice and mentorship from industry leaders in topics such as user experience, business modeling, and technology architecture. The areas of mentorship will be determined by the semi-finalist concepts.

September 2011:  The 5 semi-finalists will take part in a “Demo Day” to pitch their concepts. The event will be live-streamed.

October 1, 2011: Two finalists will be announced and awarded $10,000 to conduct a community uptake exercise. The community uptake exercise consists of engaging with a real community of people living with diabetes gather responses to their prototype. Finalists will determine the community uptake location and format with the Sponsors. The exercise will be one month long.

December 15, 2011: 1 winner will be announced and awarded $100,000 and a 1-month stay at the Rock Health accelerator to develop their concept.

So at this point, I’d like to issue a personal appeal to the Pulse + Signal readers who may be considering this challenge. Your interest in health and technology has the potential to improve the experience or outcome for the millions of people living with diabetes today. To learn more:

• Visit the Website: www.datadesigndiabetes.com
• Watch our Video: http://vimeo.com/25434364
• Follow us on Twitter: @DDDiabetes
• Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Data-Design-Diabetes/129625740449604

The following is a guest post from Elizabeth Brotherton of PreventObesity.net reviewing the final day of the recent Childhood Obesity Conference held in San Diego, CA. More photos from the event can be found on their Facebook page. You can see Part 1 of the conference review here.

Get ready to sweat.

If there was one message out of last month’s 6^th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference, it was that solving obesity won’t be solved with one big fix. It’s going to require significant policy change on the federal, state and local level, doing everything from promoting healthier food and beverages to increasing physical activity and the monumental task of getting people to spend less time in their cars. And it’s going to be an effort that will take a decade or more.

But as mentioned in the last post, the topic du joir was food marketing, as panelists and participants alike brainstormed ways to curb the influence that food and beverage companies have on children.  The problem, the experts seemed to agree, is that marketing has become so powerful and prevalent that even the most active and involved parents have a difficult time combating it.

I was particularly struck by the words of Dr. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who appeared on a panel about advertising to children, alongside other policy pros like Dale Kunkel of the University of Arizona and Kelly Brownell of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.

Wootan was able to spout out plenty of interesting statistics about food marketing to kids — mainly that advertisers hawk all the unhealthy stuff and don’t bother pushing nutritious items — but I was moved by her own experiences as a mom. Being a nutrition expert, Wootan worked to ensure her daughter wasn’t exposed to fast food… but it was in vain.

“Even before my little girl was watching television, she was talking about… that hamburger place with the clown has,” Wootan said, referring McDonald’s. “And then her cousins taught her that they also have French fries.”

Wootan noted that studies show that kids need to push their nine times for something before exhausted moms or dads finally give in. Advertisers know that, which is why they push so hard for kids to know about their products.

The beverage industry also was the focus of the last day of the conference, as experts presented evidence showing the growing influence of the soft drink industry during the past decade. During one soda-focused session, Harold Goldstein of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy screened this classic Pepsi ad featuring Michael Jackson (and a young Alfonzo Ribeiro from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”). The infamous ad features Jackson singing his song “Billie Jean” with the rewritten lyrics “You’re the Pepsi Generation/guzzle down and taste the thrill of the day/and feel the Pepsi way.”

The ad, Goldstein noted, is a clear marker of a “whole new generation” addicted to soda — and significantly more obese.

Brownell also spoke on the soda-themed panel (seriously, that guy was everywhere) and said that while targeting soda might not be the only solution to reversing obesity, “it’s a good place to start.”

“I think we are going to win this, but it’s not going to be easy,” Brownell added.

The conference wrapped up with a keynote panel on social media, which included a few words from my boss, PreventObesity.net co-founder Marty Kearns. Marty and the other participants pushed the 300 or so folks who stayed until the last moments of the conference to really embrace social media as a way to get their message to others, and present relevant data in new and interesting ways.

It’s more than just tweets, they agreed; it’s about using technology to present material to people in ways that effects them and spurs them to act.

—————————

Elizabeth Brotherton is a senior writer and editor for PreventObesity.net. She is tasked with creating original content for the project, including on its blog and weekly newsletter, The Inside Track. Brotherton previously wrote the “Heard on the Hill” column for Roll Call and has written for a number of publications, including the Orange County Register, Press-Enterprise and the Almanac of the Unelected.

The following is a guest post from Elizabeth Brotherton of PreventObesity.net reviewing day 1 of the recent Childhood Obesity Conference held in San Diego, CA. More photos from the event can be found on their Facebook page. See here for Part 2 of the review.

Aside from First Lady Michelle Obama, there aren’t too many famous folk working to reverse childhood obesity. So when Sam Kass, the handsome White House assistant chef and key player in Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, gave a keynote speech to kick off the 6th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference in San Diego on Tuesday, he drew quite the crowd.

And some of Kass’s remarks came as a bit of a shock to some in the audience.

Kass spoke before a packed ballroom of 1,800 or so attendees, talking a lot about Let’s Move!, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new “MyPlate” food icon and proposed federal principles guiding companies to advertise only healthy foods to kids. But Kass also told the crowd that for real change to happen, private sector companies and corporations must be involved.

Chef Sam Kass

“This issue will not be solved unless we engage and really work with the private sector,” Kass said.

Kass’s comments came after an audience member suggested the administration work to ban sodas from hospitals, which she compared to allowing patients to smoke. While Kass didn’t dismiss the suggestion, telling the crowd local communities should make decisions that are right for them, he urged people to keep a broad perspective when looking at reversing obesity.

“This issue is not caused by one drink,” Kass said. “It isn’t.”

Those remarks seemed to shock some conference goers, many of whom are working to limit access to sugar sweetened drinks, especially in schools. But it didn’t squash Kass’s warm reception, as dozens of people swarmed him after his speech, including many people who wanted a photo with the dashing White House chef.

Kass also, it turns out, has a bit of a bromance with Robert Ross, president and CEO of the California Endowment. Ross explained in a speech that when he first came to the White House to talk about childhood obesity a few years ago, he planned on meeting with top administration officials. Instead, he was told he would meet with the chef.

“You want me to go see the cook?” Ross recalled saying.

But Ross and Kass hit it off, and Ross even joked, “I don’t know if it was a man crush…”

“We connected,” Ross added. “This guy was not just a cook. He had a passion and a vision.”

Other notes from the conference:

• Those proposed food marketing principles Kass mentioned in his speech have been the talk of the conference, with panelists urging conference-goers to write to the Federal Trade Commission to comment on them. The deadline to do so is July 14 (PreventObesity.net actually has an easy way to submit comments to the FTC)

• Being an obesity conference, there are plenty of opportunities for conference-goers to engage in physical activity during their trip. Exercise and yoga classes, power walks and runs are being sponsored every morning, and physical activity sessions are being led by fitness experts during the day. There’s also a hilarious sign posted next to a set of elevators urging people to take the nearby stairs instead.
  

  Say No to the Escalator

• Technology-wise, a lot of emphasis is being placed on the use of GIS mapping to track various issues related to obesity. One group in California, for example, shared in a conference session how they used the technology to find out where women who were eligible but not receiving the Women Infants and Children (WIC) funding were living. After they mapped that, they opened WIC clinics in those areas to better reach those communities in-need.
• Dozens of young people also are attending the conference, and several shared their personal stories at a session held Wednesday morning. One high schooler is working to bring fresh, clean water to her campus, while others are using photography to get the word out about everything from unhealthy nutrition to food deserts to the importance of local gardens. 

   

  —————————-

  Elizabeth Brotherton is a senior writer and editor for PreventObesity.net. She is tasked with creating original content for the project, including on its blog and weekly newsletter, The Inside Track. Brotherton previously wrote the “Heard on the Hill” column for Roll Call and has written for a number of publications, including the Orange County Register, Press-Enterprise and the Almanac of the Unelected.

For those of you who ever thought taking the steps to save someone’s life during a cardiac arrest event, the American Heart Association (disclosure: my employer) wants to make it easy AND entertaining to remember.

If you’re a fan of The Hangover movies – entertaining is just the word to accompany this video starring Ken Jeong (otherwise known as Mr. Chow from the movies).

“I may play insanely crazy and comedic characters on screen, but as an internal medicine physician in real life, I want people to know that sudden cardiac arrest is a serious matter,” said Jeong, star of The Hangover, The Hangover Part 2, and the NBC series Community, returning for its 3^rd season this fall. “Immediate action can be the difference between life and death. Everyone needs to know it’s in their hands to help save a life.”

The American Heart Association is also working with Crowdrise.com, an innovative social fundraising website founded by actor Edward Norton, to raise money to support the association’s lifesaving research and educational programs. For four weeks beginning June 15, visitors to crowdrise.com/HandsOnlyCPR can win prizes for raising money for the American Heart Association, including:

• Two tickets to “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno
• Two tickets to “Ellen”
• “Hunger Games” hardcover books signed by Jennifer Lawrence (star of upcoming “Hunger Games” films)
• “Glee: Journey to Regionals” CD signed by Chris Colfer

Members of the Cities of Service Coalition – a bipartisan coalition of mayors from across the nation who are working to harness the power of volunteers to solve pressing local challenges – are implementing Volunteer CPR, a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor’s office works with local medical professionals and emergency responders to train volunteers in Hands-Only CPR. These volunteers then pledge to teach Hands-Only CPR to at least five others, helping their communities improve their ability to respond to sudden cardiac arrest emergencies. The “Stayin’ Alive” video will be available for all cities pursuing similar Volunteer CPR initiatives.

“Stayin’ Alive” and chest compressions

Alson Inaba, M.D., an American Heart Association CPR instructor and associate professor at the University of Hawaii, is credited with first using “Stayin’ Alive” to teach students the correct rate of chest compressions. Studies show that when CPR training uses the song to teach the technique, people are more likely to remember the correct rhythm and feel more confident performing CPR.

Hands-Only CPR

Hands-Only CPR – or CPR without using breaths – involves two simple steps to help an adult cardiac arrest victim: 1. Call 9-1-1 and 2. Push hard and fast in the center of the chest until an AED arrives and is ready for use or healthcare providers take over.

Sudden cardiac arrest

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart abruptly stops functioning. It’s a leading cause of death in the U.S. with nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital cases reported annually. About 80 percent of victims collapse at home, as the victim’s family, friends or loved ones often stand by because they don’t know what to do. Providing CPR immediately is crucial – chances of survival more than double with immediate and effective CPR.

The 7th annual Games for Health conference began today in Boston. This conference is one of several going on now as part of Games Beyond Entertainment Week, organized by Digitalmill, Inc. and is supported by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Today’s pre-conference line-up did not disappoint – I’m only sorry that I couldn’t attend every presentation! From accessibility to sensors, prevention to rehabilitation, medical education to research, the day was packed with awesome speakers, great design and a whole lot of inspiration. Here are just a few of today’s take-aways…

1. Gaming has the potential for application in a long list of healthcare topics.

Continua Health Alliance talked about the many health gaming opportunities, including integrative health activities, simple secondary input, chronic disease care and diagnostic gaming.

2. Incentives work.

Incentivizing gaming was a practice and recommendation across the board. Continua Health Alliance provided that competitions are the greatest motivators (the speaker referenced Partners Healthcare data not available in the public domain). Group competitions were also a hot topic – they are not only highly motivating but add a social dynamic different from head-to-head rivalry. Creativity and supplying options were also mentioned as important factors in considering incentives, for example, allowing one to apply credit to a cause, or trade it in for mobile minutes, may be more motivating than cash for some.

3. Users who share their success do better.

Bill Sabram of MeYou Health talked to this point, touting the power of connection. In Monumental, MeYou Health’s free iPhone app that “takes you to the top of virtual monuments as you climb real stairs,” users can share results with other users through social plug-ins, and these users are more successful.

Tomorrow looks just as promising! So, look for more conference coverage tomorrow on Pulse + Signal and follow the hashtag #G4H11 for live news.

–

Bridgette (a.k.a. @bcollado)

Caught this a little while ago on Mashable:

I thought it was an interesting way to put together an infographic to warn us on how our sedentary lifestyles are impacting our health. Something to distribute to your workplace wellness coordinator?

[click image for better view]

Via: Medical Billing And Coding