Join or renew your membership online  
Join now to take full advantage of discounts and scholarships to attend professional development conferences. Plus members save $70 every time you post a job to the ACU Career Center.
|
Join the Conversation
   Receive more news, resources and updates when you like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or join the ACU group on LinkedIn. |
February is Black History Month 
Visit the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network for information and materials, including this Tobacco Timeline in African American History. |
The February issue of the JHCPU issue is available online 
The February 2013 issue of the JHCPU focuses on Black History Month. View the table of contents online. Full text is available to ACU members.
|
Download the Nicotine Addiction App Here: 
IPhone
Android |
|
Our Sponsors
Platinum Level
Gold Level
|
|
|
|
Cultural Competence in the Trenches
Linda H. Lewis, RDH, Med (left), Vicki Hines-Martin, PhD, CNS, RN, FAAN, Faye Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, and Michael Rowland, PhD co-authored Cultural Competency in the Trenches, the ACU column in the current Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. All four are faculty members at the University of Louisville. Recently, they sat for an interview about the state of cultural competency training in the health professions. It will be available on the ACU website soon.
|
Workshop Sessions Announced
 With more than 20 workshops on all aspects of health IT at ACU's Health IT and the Underserved Conference, the hardest part will be choosing which to attend: Supportive resources for adopting an EHR or Increasing patient portal enrollment? Protecting digital patient information or Teledentistry? Using voice mail and resource broadcast programs or mobile data surveillance?
The list goes on (download full conference program here), and we guarantee there will be a strong emphasis throughout the program on real-world experiences from your peers and moving toward meaningful use of health IT in the patient-centered health home environment.
You will have an opportunity to network with colleagues, learn from national leaders, and interact with representatives of key federal agencies, including the ONC and AHRQ. ACU is offering a group discount for three or more registrants from an organization as well as a student rate. Make plans to join us in Poughkeepsie, NY. Register today.
|
Listen to These ACU Members' Stories
 | | Giselle Perry |
Meet the two newest ACU members who tell their personal stories about working with the underserved in the ACU audio story bank. Giselle Perry, a licensed professional counselor, divides her time between private practice and Healthworks of Northern Virginia. She says her work at Healthworks is both more challenging and more rewarding for her.
 | |
Rick McKinney, MD
|
ACU member Rick McKinney, MD, is a pioneerin the field of integrative medicine for the underserved. Listen as he describes im4us.org, an online community for sharing resources on integrative medicine and the underserved.
|
|
Welcome New Members!
ACU is pleased to welcome 23 new members who joined in January: Jones Addoh, Glenn Albright, Corey Basch, Nancy Brahm, Martin Burrows, Linnea Capps, Chris Cavanaugh, Lindsay Dalton, Eric Elmquist, Mark Fox, Christine Huffner, Rick Munnoz, Amal Nardi, Jacqueline Olaywole, Mark Olschesky, Douglas Olson, Sonia Oyola, Rachael Postman, Teri Sasse, Mary Ann Terminello, Barbara Vincensi, Mary Zelazny, and Robert Zimmerman. Welcome all!
|
Making House Calls to the Homeless
 | | Photo: Pittsburgh Mercy Health System |
ACU member Dr. Jim Withers was featured in a recent USA Today article on providing health care to the homeless. Withers begin his providing street medicine in PIttburgh in 1992 and wrote about his experiences in an ACU column called Street Medicine: An Example of Reality-based Health Care for the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
|
Policy Brief on Medicaid Expansion
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council has developed a four-page policy brief on Medicaid expansion. ACU encourages you to use it in your advocacy efforts, particularly in those states reluctant to expand their Medicaid programs. For the first time, the Affordable Care Act gives states the option to provide coverage for the lowest income adults in their States, without regard to disability, parental status or most other categorical limitations. Download Medicaid Expansion: Improving Health & Stability, Reducing Costs & Homelessness.
|
Conferences and E-Learning
February 14, 2 - 4 p.m. ET, Building an Asthma Care Home: Engaging Clinicians, Patients and Caregivers in Comprehensive Asthma Management, presented by ACU's Lois Wessel and Anna Gard in conjunction with Community Health Partners for Sustainability. CE credits will be available.
February 21, 1 p.m. ET, Social Marketing and Tobacco Campaigns, offered by the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, addresses the role of social marketing campaigns in tobacco control, how to target different audiences with distinct messages, and the California Smokers' Helpline's recent campaign targeting behavioral health professionals.
February 25, 2:30 - 4 p.m. ET, RX for Outdoor Activity Training Webinar for health care professionals and public land managers sponsored by the National Environmental Education Foundation.
Mar 14 - 16, National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.
March 19, 2- 3 p.m. ET, Housing and Health: A Look at Effective Interventions for People with Asthma hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Q & A session follows from 3 - 3:30 p.m. in the AsthmaCommunityNetwork.org Discussion Forum.
April 12 - 14, Annual Global Health and Humanitarian Summit at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, a two-day forum for in depth talks, workshops, exhibits, and film screenings. Attendance is free for all participants.
|
Primary Care Access
A new Senate report, Primary Care Access outlines the critical shortage of primary care providers across the nation and predicts a growing primary care shortage. The report urges increased investment in the primary care workforce and in community health centers. Tess Stack Kuenning, executive director of Bi-State Primary Care Association, was among those who testified at a Senate hearing on the need for primary care.
|
|
Call for Abstracts
The AAP Section on Oral Health has issues a call for abstracts for poster sessions to be presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics' National Conference and Exhibition on October 26, 2013 in Orlando, Florida. More information is available on online. Deadline: April 13.
The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) has issued a call for abstracts from people working in the field of HIV/AIDS interested in convening a seminar, workshop, roundtable or poster presentation at the 2013 U.S. Conference on AIDS to be held Sept. 8 - 11, 2013 in New Orleans, LA. NMAC has developed an online abstract mentor program to provide support for young and/or less-experienced abstract submitters, in order to build HIV/AIDS research capacity in communities of color and increase the number and quality of abstracts accepted for 2013 USCA.
|
Scholarship Opportunity
ACU is offering scholarships to participate in these professional development programs offered by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The scholarships are underwritten by Kaiser Permanente and funding is available to ACU members, including staff of member clinics and organizations. Registration fees are covered, but not travel. To apply, please use the online scholarship application form. Apply early, as funding is limited.
March 20 - 21, IHI Triple Aim: From Real World Learning to an Achievable Plan, a two day seminar in Chicago, IL, on achieving the systemic improvement by partnering with organizations across the spectrum to reduce the cost of care, improve the patient experience and boost population health.
April 7 - 9, 14th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice & the Community in Scottsdale, AZ.
April 30 - May 1, Improvement Skills for Tomorrow's Health Care: The Experts' Perspective, a two-day seminar in Cambridge, MA, by world-renown quality improvement leaders.
Detailed program descriptions are available online. These programs normally cost as much as $1,975/person. The ACU scholarship covers the full registration fee. Apply now.
|
|
Funding Opportunity
The NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program (formerly the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program) offers loan repayment assistance to registered nurses and advance practice nurses, such as nurse practitioners, working at Critical Shortage facilities and nurse faculty employed at accredited schools of nursing. Program participants receive up to 60 percent of their qualifying student loans in exchange for a 2-year service commitment - and an additional 25 percent of their original loan balance for an optional third year. The application cycle is open through Thursday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. ET.
|
More Tobacco Cessation Resources
The free online CME/CE program Tobacco Use and Dependence: An Updated Review of Treatments from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has a new location. Participants learn evidence-based practices from the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.
The Asian Smokers' Quitline is now delivering free nationwide telephone assistance for Cantonese-, Mandarin-, Korean- and Vietnamese-speakers. Tobacco control professionals can help increase smokers' access to this resource by informing their patients, colleagues, and community members about the Asian Smokers' Quitline.
|
|
PCORI Seeks Advisory Panel Members
- Assessment of prevention, diagnosis and treatment options
- Improving Healthcare Systems
- Addressing Disparities
- Patient Engagement
Charters for each panel, including the scope of work for panelists, are available on the PCORI website. Submit applications online by 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday, March 4.
|
 | | Eugene Steuerle |
Economist Eugene Steuerle argues that electronic health records and the accumulation of large data sets could potentially transform our understanding of health and disease in this guest blog post on the ACU website. While many are focused on the potential of EHRs to improve care for individual patients, Steuerle argues that the real promise of EHRs is in solving problems like autism and Alzheimer's Disease. Read more ...
|
|
|
|
|
