ACU is offering two national asthma training webinars this month. Both are free, 90-minute trainings on Building an Asthma Care Home: Engaging Clinicians, Patients and Caregivers in Comprehensive Asthma Management.

Wednesday, July 25, at 12 noon ET - this training will be offered in English and CE/CME credit is available.

Thursday July 26, at 12 noon ET - this program will be offered in Spanish and is intended for promotoras and community health workers. Please spread the word among your colleagues.

The presenters, Lois Wessel, CFNP and Anna Gard, FNP-BC, bring frontline clinician experience to this training, as well as extensive backgrounds in health IT, health literacy, and chronic disease management. This is an EPA-funded project. Click the links above for more information and to register. 

Members Speak Out on Health Reform  

Nearly 200 respondents completed the ACU Advocacy Committee's recent online poll about the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expanded Medicaid eligibility on the clinics and organizations where they work.

Here are some noteworthy highlights from the responses:

• Most thought that it was likely that healthcare reform would be implemented in 2014 as written (with Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchanges). 
• The largest group of respondents were from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).
•  A majority of participants said that their organizations have begun discussing potential changes due to healthcare reform.
• Most were preparing for the changes by updating their strategic plans.
• If health reform is implemented as written, many said that an immediate change would be to accept more patients and hire more staff.
• An overwhelming majority said their healthcare organization still would be needed after the 2014-2019 transition period.
• The majority of respondents said that ACU can help them during this time by advocating for healthcare organizations.

The ACU Advocacy Committee would like to congratulate the four winners whose names were selected at random from among the respondents to receive a $25 American Express gift card: Christian Neal, Anna Bunploog, Julie Kumiega, and Kirsten Roling. The Committee thanks everyone who participated. Watch for more detailed results in the future. 

Vinod Miriyala, DDS

The ACU Board of Directors extends its thanks to departing member Vinod Miriyala. Dr. Miriyala is a dentist working in southeastern Ohio for the Ironton Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization. As an ACU board member, he has helped strengthen ACU's ties to the oral health community and identified oral health resources for our work on tobacco cessation.

Merrell Sami, MD

We also bid farewell to Dr. Merrell Sami, who worked with ACU while participating in Georgetown University's Department of Family Medicine Residency Bridge Fellowship. Launched in 2011, the program is designed to increase the leadership skills of future family physicians during their third year of residency. Dr. Sami was the first resident to participate in the program and worked directly with ACU and the National Association of Community Health Centers on several projects. She has accepted a position with Kaiser Permanente in the Washington, DC, area. We appreciate both for their service and wish them well in all their future endeavors. 

Conferences  and E-Learning 

Our Members in the News

  

Dr. Neil Calman

Congratulations to our members at the Institute for Family Health and Mount Sinai School of Medicine on establishing the new Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and to Neil Calman who will serve as department chair. The department's Harlem Residency in Family Medicine will welcome its first class of family medicine residents this month.

Is Yours a Health Literate Organization? 

Scholarships and Fellowships

The National Oral Health Learning Institute (NOHLI) is sponsored by the National Network for Oral Health Access for Dental Director or Dental Program mangers with five years or less experience. The pilot class begins September 30, 2012, at the national Primary Oral Health Conference in San Diego, CA.  Applications are due July 18. Program and application details are available online.

Nate Seeskin, ACU Communications Intern

If you follow ACU on either Facebook or Twitter, you know that the National Soda Summit was held in June to encourage Americans kick the habit of drinking sugar-laden sodas and other beverages. Our coverage of the Summit, including live tweets, was coordinated by Nate Seeskin. A junior at American University, Nate joined the ACU staff for an eight-week summer internship focusing on communications. The internship was made possible by the ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program. Learn more about the National Soda Summit and check out the links to additional information and resources on sugary drinks on the ACU website.   

Join the Celebration   

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced a call for Midcareer Consultants, scholars from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities who have between 10-15 years of research and/or evaluation experience, to address program priorities for RWJF's teams and portfolios. More details and how to apply are available here. The deadline for brief proposals is Aug. 29.

The National Network for Oral Health Access has developed a web-based collection of  Promising Practices for Health Center Oral Health Programs. Visitors are also invited to submit promising practices, especially in the areas of financials, risk management, health information technology, workforce and all clinical topics. Submit by July 27 to be eligible for a drawing to win one of five $25 gift cards.