On Sunday, I had the great opportunity to visit the 2008 NBC Health and Fitness Expo at the Convention Center in Washington, DC. This is my third year going (this is the 15th year of the event) to the expo and every time I go, I get blown away at the vendors and the sheer amount of attendees that show up.

According to the NBC 4 website, over 85,000 people showed up to take part in the variety of giveaways, health screenings, and even activities like salsa dancing! The expo was held on Saturday and Sunday but unfortunately I was only able to make the tail end of Sunday - as they say, better late than never right?

As soon as you enter the Washington Convention Center, there were clear signs leading you to the event. When you got to the top of the escalator platform, you got a clear view of what was happening - it was awesome.

Despite having limited time, I did manage to get around to some great booths. The most interesting exhibit I came across was Mark Marten’s FitClub demo. Mark heads up Pantometrics, a company that develops exercise technology for fitness equipment. As I was walking past his booth, I couldn’t help but notice a young girl on a stationery bike looking at a screen that basically looked like a virtual Tour de France!

How cool is that?!

I was very impressed and had to stop by and chat with Mark for a few, getting his insight into the product and what motivated him. I’m going to try to get an interview with him so stay tuned for that. This is exactly the kind of innovation that we need to be working on in order to merge together popular technology and the benefit of healthy living!

As the event began to wind down, I got the impression that thousands of people left the facility a little more enlightened about staying healthy and became aware of the different organizations in the area that are devoted to ensuring that it stays that way. Next year I hope to visit the expo on both days and cover more events.

There was an article I found on the NBC 4 website that highlighted a man who said that the event saved his life. Here is a snippet:

…A 61-year-old Maryland man said if not for free medical screenings he received at NBC4’s Health and Fitness Expo about eight years ago, he might have died.

Banjo player Frank Cassel said he knew his health was in jeopardy, but he hadn’t seen a doctor. He went to the Health and Fitness Expo, where medical experts performed a battery of tests for free.

“They found out that all my levels of sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides were all severely elevated,” Cassel said…Cassel was diagnosed with uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes. That diagnosis prompted him to make some major changes in his life, like eating healthier to control his diabetes and starting a regular exercise program. Now his blood sugar is under control and his cholesterol is down.

“If I hadn’t gone to the Health Expo and gotten tested, it’s very possible I would have died,” he said. Cassel was so thankful for the Expo that he wrote a song about it…

Amazing. One of the things I was taught while learning about Community Health in college (and that I still hold onto), is that even the smallest success in someone’s life is a huge victory. And as we all know the world is getting smaller, each victory has the potential to spread into larger victories through word of mouth. What if Mr. Cassel decided to sing the praises of the Expo to his family and friends (as you can see, he DID write a song about the event!)? What if they decided to check the Expo out next year or better yet, decided to make some changes in their own lifestyle to promote better health?

Kudos to you NBC and to the rest of you deciding to make small steps to better yourselves.

It’s never too late to start.

*see more pictures from the event here

APHA keeps it moving with a blog for next year’s Public Health Week:

http://www.nphw.blogspot.com/

Looking forward to spreading the news..National Public Health Week happens April 7-13, 2008

Ok so I decided to check what’s been going on Twitter and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the APHA twitter feed has been updated!  That’s what I’m talkin about!

In case you were wondering what the “twit” was, they just recently put up a website for National Public Health Week going on next year. Can’t wait!

For those who aren’t up to speed on what Twitter is - it’s basically a platform that allows you to do micro-blogging, letting people know what you are up to or what you are thinking at any given moment. Now I must admit, in the beginning I was skeptical about the usefulness but after diving in and meeting people/exchanging ideas, it became another tool to put in my box. Need a question answered? Send it out on Twitter and see how many people write you back with ideas. It was especially interesting to see how it was useful in the recent California fires.

Kudos once again to the American Public Health Association for breaking into the niche social media trend!

Ryan over at the Brewing Culture blog, wrote some thoughts on a recent news item regarding the amount of media that will be user generated in 5 years. With the pace of websites like YouTube and Myspace creating online celebrities, it sort of makes sense!

Here’s a thought along those lines:

1. Not too long ago, the people in control of media and what we saw, heard and read, were sitting high and pretty because they were the ones producing all the content.
2. Today, the consumer is now creating content that people can see, hear and read all over the world. User-generated content is quickly becoming an important part of all entertainment and media.
3. Public health/health education aims to prevent disease and encourage the ongoing health and well being of all (stay with me now…)
4. Physicians and hospitals are the people in control of treating illness and curing disease. When you are sick and suffering, the patient heads to the hospital to be (more or less) cured - because, they have the answer to why you are feeling the way you do.
5. Today, the consumer is able to visit websites such as WebMD, to gain knowledge on a condition or disease. There are also blogs popping up on the radar that address health concerns such as DiabetesMine, The Health Wisdom Blog, and one of my new favorites The Health 2.0 blog.

How is this all connected you ask? Well, we are living in a time where the traditional “head honchos” are no longer completely running the show. And I’m not exactly pumping my fist in the air and screaming how much we should fight the power, I’m just realizing that there is potential in the public health and health education sphere for spreading knowledge on living well and increasing healthy behaviors. Now more than ever, we can begin to stop complaining when we think to ourselves “shouldn’t they know better?” I plan on doing something about it.

Doing good things should be high on everyone’s list. Now of course, we all can’t start a foundation to increase the literacy of children across America or better the science and technology skills of the underprivileged - but simple things we can do.

A few days ago, I was reading through Beth’s blog and came across this online game that she was playing with her children. It sounded pretty interesting, so I bookmarked it in plans to check it out. Yesterday, I finally got around to checking out Free Rice, the English language trivia game that not only increases your knowledge of words but sends rice to the hungry through the UN.

Now, I did pretty decently on my verbal SAT but wow, there are some serious words going on here! One of my favorite words, basilisk [a legendary reptile] popped up last night but the word blazon - definitely wasn’t in my vocabulary. It means “coat of arms“. And now that I think of it, the world emblazoned is in my vocabulary and I was upset that I missed the opportunity to add 20 more grains of rice to the bowl. Anyhow, the website also includes a history of rice donated from when the website began. It’s really interesting to see how interest in the game has exploded and I’m pretty sure it’s due to word of mouth (WOM).

With the advent of social media and the importance of creating community amongst peers, it’s no wonder that word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of marketing a product or in this case, a worthy cause. Heck, there is even a whole association based around it! Global hunger is a public health issue - inadvertently, the creation of the Web 2.0 phenomenon has made a way to connect people to many great causes. The potential is seemingly endless and I want to tap into it and make some changes.

It’s an exciting time now people!!

http://www.publichealththankyouday.org/

I wish I had known about this event much earlier! This is exactly the kind of resource we need to promote and get on the news in FRONT of the latest high blood pressure drug that will eventually cause you to get high cholesterol…

Prevention is better than cure folks - our parents told us this but oh how aptly it applies to health.

I’ll be all over Public Health Thank You Day next year!

Did you catch the latest E! True Hollywood Story this past weekend on health education and public health in America? …no? Okay well yeah it didn’t happen BUT wouldn’t that have been interesting? Among all the scandals, celebrities gone wild and famous crimes that get profiled on that show and on television in general - what do you think would happen if topics in health were shown?

Mainstream media is a powerful (albeit, changing due to the Web) force in the minds of the general population. Despite the often sensationalized news and recycled excitement of reality shows, people still tune into the television and get a “network sponsored education”. And we can’t forget about those people who still don’t log onto the Internet! Obviously the main reason people turn on the tube is to get entertained but every now and then, there are nuggets of value. How can the genuine health industry relay credible and helpful information to the general public through this venue?

In recent news, Oprah Winfrey revealed her battle with a thyroid condition that has caused her to gain weight and have problems with sleeping. Now, anyone who has heard of Oprah knows the amount of power that she wields in informing her niche demographic (91% women, average age of 45 - according to website viewers) and the great amount of attention to anything that appears on her show. Thanks to her public announcement, thyroid conditions have gained immeasurable publicity. According to Amy over at Diabetes Mine, thyroid disorders occur commonly in people with diabetes and especially with women (great for the target audience!).

I think there’s still merit in health promotion on television, stay tuned as I explore this topic some more…

High profile celebrities + television + health education/promotion = worthy cause?

—Helpful Links—

http://www.concernedjournalists.org/node/72
http://health.discovery.com/
http://www.oprah.com/adsales/audience.html
http://www.oprah.com/health/yourbody/slide/20071016/slide_yourbody_northrup_101.jhtml
http://www.eifoundation.org/

Well after much ballyhoo and hard work, I am VERY proud to say that the University of Maryland at College Park, my alma mater, has opened their very own School of Public Health! You can read more about the School here. This is especially cool since I graduated from the former College of Health and Human Performance, 2 years ago. According to President Mote:

“The new School of Public Health will be built on the considerable strengths of its predecessor, the College of Health and Human Performance, with a core mission of translating public health research and learning into healthy public policy. “No other public research university in the region has an accredited school of public health whose mission is focused on research and the applications of knowledge that directly benefits citizens in that area.”

The faculty at the school were exceptionally encouraging and a necessary component to my interest in health education, promotion and the field of public health. I can’t wait to see what great things the School will accomplish in the coming years. This is perfect timing as the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE) are having their annual meetings in Washington DC in November. I’m sure they’ll find a way to promote that.

The Dean of the School, Dr. Bob Gold, is one of the smartest people I’ve met in the public health arena. He’s pretty cool because he is definitely one of those people who want to merge health education and technology together. Hopefully I’ll get to catch up with him soon! Here’s a picture of us at the 2004 SOPHE conference in DC (click to enlarge).