ACU Celebrates 15 Years
ACU was founded in 1996 by National Health Service Corps (NHSC) alumni who wanted to continue to support each other and share knowledge, resources and expertise about practicing in underserved communities. Today the NHSC had more than 8,000 active clinicians, the highest number ever. By September, 2011 the goal is to have 10,500 clinicians in the field. ACU celebrates the work these clinicians are doing. If you are one of them, contact us at acu@clinicians.org. |
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JHCPU
Online access to the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved is an ACU member benefit. Click the image to learn more about JHCPU.
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April Is National Minority Health Month
Minority Health Month is focusing on school lunches with the theme, "Bring It or Buy It - Make Lunch Healthy, Green and Good!" Click the image to learn more about the link between minority health and school food, and for suggested activities and events.
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ACU's Community Health Fellow
Dr. Sarah Kureshi, ACU's Health Policy Fellow, is a Fellow in the Community Health Center Director Development program at Georgetown University's Department of Family Medicine. She is providing clinical services at Unity Health Care and working on several projects with ACU and the National Association of Community Health Centers, as well as teaching medical students and residents. She can be reached at skureshi@gmail.com.
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ACU survey tackles tobacco treatment
 ACU has created a brief online survey to measure clinician attitudes about available tobacco cessation treatment options and practices in primary care settings. The survey is the initial step of a larger initiative that will empower clinical teams to assist patients who struggle with tobacco addition. Take the brief surveyand let us know how you deal with this difficult treatment issue. We encourage you to share the survey with your colleagues prior to April 15 when the survey closes.
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ACU charter members - then and now
 Scott Wolpin, DMD distinctly remembers the February 1996 meeting in Lexington, Ky. that led to the establishment of ACU -- his first child was due any day and he was nervous about being away from home! Most of those gathered were National Health Service Corps (NHSC) alumni who wanted to continue to network, share resources and advocate for change. He recalls a major "Aha!" moment when those in the room realized that there no other organization existed that represented all of the health disciplines. Hence the idea for ACU.
Dr. Wolpin served as president of ACU in 2004 and was instrumental in developing a project to reduce childhood caries that was ahead of its time. "It was before the guidance came out that children should be seen by age one," he said. "And it truly was a transdisciplinary project in that you had dental health providers sharing their skills and preventive messages with other clinicians whose training in oral health was very limited."
For Wolpin, the bonds he established with other ACU members have been empowering. When compassion fatigue sets in, he turns to his ACU colleagues to re-charge his batteries. "When we see each other, it's not a handshake, but a hug," he said.
Scott Wolpin, DMD, serves as Chief Dental Officer at the Choptank Community Health System, Inc., a community health center with dental offices in Cambridge, Federalsburg, and Goldsboro, MD.
 Jennie Campbell Leslie, MD was a student at Mercer University School of Medicine when she joined ACU in 1996. Today, she is on the faculty of the Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and an ambassador for the NHSC program. "I would like to be a mentor for these folks. I know when I was working in inner-city DC, a visit by a NHSC MD for mentorship/advice/a listening ear would have been priceless," she says.
 John Fraser, MD, an ACU charter member from Texas, says "My path to public health and preventive medicine started with my Public Health Service scholarship in medical school and service obligation as pediatrician in the NHSC in the Rio Grande Valley in TX." According to Fraser, "It's been a heckuva ride ever since!" Fraser returned to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 2009 after practicing community pediatrics for eight years and clinical pediatric emergency medicine for 20 years. He is currently residency director for the general preventive medicine residency. He is also active in the Army Reserve as a preventive medicine officer and pediatrician.
If you are an ACU Charter member, send us your story. Reply to acu@clinicians.org
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Low health literacy linked to poor health
Low health literacy in older Americans is linked to poorer health status and a higher risk of death, according to a new evidence report by the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). More than 75 million English-speaking adults in the United States have limited health literacy, making it difficult for them to understand and use basic health information. For example, those with low health literacy are less likely to get a flu shot or to understand a medication label.
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How does your county stack up?
A new set of reports - one per state - ranks the health of nearly every county in the nation. County Health Rankings, a joint project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U. of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, ranked counties using data on health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and the physical environment. Action steps for clinicians and other community partners show how to identify the underlying causes of health problems and work to create solutions.
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ACU - NNOHA Partnership for Oral Health
by Scott Wolpin, DMD, NNOHA Board of Directors
ACU is working in partnership with the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) to improve the oral health of underserved populations and to support the oral health providers who serve them.
Oral disease affects underserved populations disproportionately because of limited access to oral health services. Oral health programs at Health Centers lead the charge in reducing this disparity by providing care to patients who otherwise would not have access to oral health care. In 2009 Health Centers served 3.4 million dental patients - a 177% increase since 1999. Still, there are many more individuals to reach. Health Center oral health programs and other safety-net programs are effective and proven models for the elimination of oral health disparities in our country. NNOHA supports the concept of medical and dental providers integrating their care for the optimal health of their patients. Some ways that Medical and Dental Departments can integrate their care include: - Collaboration on care for overlapping patient populations (e.g. diabetic patients, pediatric patients or pregnant women);
- Ensuring there is dental representation on the Health Center's Quality Improvement teams;
- Ensuring a strong referral system is in place for patients needing care from both departments;
- Advocating healthy living habits that are preventive measures in both departments such as good nutrition and tobacco cessation; more
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Conferences and E-Learning
April 27, 1 - 2 p.m. ET, Physician Asthma Care Education (PACE) webinar presented by the Center for Managing Chronic Disease at the University of Michigan. For primary care providers and others who care for patients who have asthma, the webinar tackles how to improve therapeutic techniques, master asthma counseling reimbursement, and interact more effectively with patients. Learn more and register here.
May 20-21, the Association of Black Health-System Pharmacists (ABHP) Minority Health Conference and Annual Meeting in Houston, TX. Register by April 22 to save on registration fees. Learn more and register here.
June 22-23, Delivering High Quality Care for Less, a seminar sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) inBoston, MA., focuses on strategies, tools, and financial models used by health care organizations working with IHI to drive waste out of their systems and doing what was once thought impossible: reducing costs while improving quality. Note: ACU members are eligible for ACU-KP scholarship funds through to attend this conference. Learn more here.
Available On Demand, Why Cancer Clinical Trials is Important for My Practice, a free, one-hour online training course for primary care providers with free continuing education credit for physicians, nurses and social workers. Offered by the Education Network to Advance Cancer Clinical Trials (ENACCT) and the Cancer Support Community (CSC), the course highlights the importance of clinical trials as a quality care option for patients and emphasizes the critical role providers can play in enhancing patient access to cancer clinical trials during the referral process.
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Resources for smaller practices
Sharing Resources: Opportunities for Smaller Primary Care Practices to Increase Their Capacity for Patient Care, a report from the Commonwealth Fund, describes a promising strategy for solo and other small practices: sharing clinical support services and health information systems with other practices. Smaller practices that share resources are more likely to have advanced electronic medical records and health information technology, routinely track and manage patient information, have after-hours care arrangements, and engage in quality monitoring and benchmarking.
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ADA and Together RX Access Join Forces
 The American Diabetes Association is one of the newest partners working with Together RX Access, the program that offers individuals and families without prescription drug coverage access to immediate savings on hundreds of brand-name and generic prescription products right at their neighborhood pharmacies. Health care professionals can order program materials here.
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