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April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month  Download your 2013 Resource Guide to Preventing Child Maltreatment and Promoting Well-Being here.
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National Public Health Week 
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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.
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Conference Inspires Innovation & Change
 | | Charles Lee, MD, President & Founder, Polyglot Systems, Inc. and Anne-Marie Biernacki, CTO, Co-Founder, AdhereTx Corp. spoke about overcoming linguistic barriers in the medication reconciliation process. |
Participants were enthusiastic about ACU's conference on Health IT and the Underserved: Transform the Way You Think about Change, held in Poughkeepsie, NY, March 7 -8, and many left inspired with new ideas. "I was very excited about the opportunities provided by technology to really enhance professional education for clinicians," said Jillian Hopewell of the Migrant Clinicians Network. "I have been very impressed with the breakout sessions ... the privacy and security session was extremely informative, and a lot of other people felt it was very helpful, said Eric Brosius of Hudson River Healthcare. [ Read more]
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Health IT Award Winners
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From left: Anna Gard, FNP of ACU presented a community agency award to Lauren Myahla, St. Joe Community Health Foundation, Tai Felger, Parkview Health, and Heather Henry, Parkview Health
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ACU's first ever Health IT for the Underserved Awards showcased talent, innovation and perseverance on behalf of underserved communities. Casey Davis, PA-C was recognized with the User from the Field Award for developing a health education website with materials in American Sign Language for the deaf and hard of hearing community, www.DeafMD.org.
Mary Zalasny, CEO of Finger Lakes Community Health (FLCH) accepted the ACU Transdisciplinary Award on behalf of FLCH for their use of telehealth clinical services to bring services to those who would otherwise have to travel great distances to access them. The telehealth service relies on transdisciplinary teams involving community health workers, providers and HIT technologists to deliver the telehealth services. [Read More ] .
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New Low Literacy Materials Available
Healthy Roads Media has a number of new, free materials especially around pregnancy, infancy and nutrition topics. Healthy Roads is a source for health information in many languages and formats, including handouts, audio, web-video, and iPod video. The home page lists 25 languages, and has an index by topic area.
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Welcome New Members!
ACU is pleased to welcome 7 new members who joined in Feburary: Heather Cutler, Alexander Enurah, Tandrea Hiliard, Brenda Hook, Sashi Makam, David Reese, and Sherida Stewart. Welcome all! |
ACU to FDA: Reduce the Sugar
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Click the image above to view the full infograph
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ACU recently the joined the Center for Science in the Public Interest
, nine local health departments, 20 nonprofit health and consumer organizations, and more than 40 nutrition experts in sending a letter to the Food and Drug Administration in support of action to determine safe limits on high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars in soft drinks. Reducing excess consumption of added sugars is an important "next step" in efforts to combat overweight, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
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Randy Hall Honored for Advocacy
 | | Randy Hall with ACU Executive Director Kathie Westpheling and President Katherine Brieger, RD. Click the photo to see more images from the awards luncheon. |
ACU honored Emerson 'Randy' Hall for his dedicated service as an advocate for the underserved during a luncheon toast/roast held during the HIT conference. Randy served as an ACU board member from 2008 - 2012. He has made significant contributions to health care for the underserved in the areas of HIV/AIDs, depression and mental health services, diabetes, smoking and access to care, to new only a few. He has been involved in patient advocacy and worked with more than 70 national societies and consumer groups. Among those who spoke were Caroline "CC" Claus-Ehlers, PhD, of Rutgers University, James Miguel Pierce, and Randy's wife, Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall.
Visit the ACU website to read the tribute to Randy by Caroline 'CC' Clauss-Ehlers, PhD, Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology & School Counseling/Program Clinical Coordinator, Rutgers University.
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ACU Members - post your job openings in the ACU Career Center and receive 20% off each job posting with this code: ACU20. Our members are your best source of talent. |
Conferences and E-Learning
March 19, 2 - 3 p.m. ET, free webinar on Housing and Health - A Look at Effective interventions for People with Asthma from the Environmental Protection Agency.
March 21, 5 p.m. ET, free webinar on Promoting Smoke-Free Multiunit Housing in Diverse Communities, offered by APPEAL PROMISE Network, highlights promising strategies from organizations that serve Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
March 22, 2 p.m. ET, free webinar on Using Clinician Decision Support in Safety Net Provider Settings offered by the Health Resources and Services Administration featuring clinical and quality leaders from the Community Health Center, Inc, Middletown, CT and Lisa Gall, Health IT Consultant for Stratis Health/REACH, Bloomington, MN.
March 26, 2 p.m. ET, free webinar on Tobacco Cessation Coverage & Medicaid Expansion , offered by the American Lung Association.
April 9, 2 p.m. ET, free webinar on Tobacco Education for Oral Health Providers, offered by Break Free Alliance and the National Association of Community Health Centers.
April 19-20, Sharing the Vision , the first conference specifically designed for faculty who are involved in student run free clinics, will be held at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. Registration includes meals. Topics of discussion include physician recruitment, research in student run clinics, alternative practice sites, and inter-professional curriculum through student run free clinics. Presentations will include involvement of dentistry, nutrition, clinical laboratory sciences, and physical therapy. Information about CME, CEU, hotel, and conference schedule available online. Early registration ends April 1.
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What to do About Gun Violence
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Annie Savarese, MD is a National Health Service Corps scholar who is currently a second year family medicine resident in the Georgetown University/Providence Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program.
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Clinicians and Gun Violence: What to know and what to do, by Dr. Annie Savarese offers a concise summary of the political and medical responses to gun violence. Of particular value to clinicians, she summarizes actions you can take at the patient-provider level and provides links to available resources. On the larger societal level, she recommends sources of information and ways to be engaged. You can read her blog on the ACU website.
If you have a topic you would like to speak out about, send your submission to acu@clinicians.org. All submissions are subject to review.
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Free Vouchers for Health IT Exams
The Health Resources and Services Administration in collaboration with The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is offering free vouchers to take the Health IT Professional Exams (HIT Pro Exams). These exams assess competency in one of six Health IT workforce roles:
- Clinician/Practitioner Consultant
- Implementation Manager
- Implementation Support Specialist
- Practice Workflow & Information Management Redesign Specialist
- Technical/Software Support Staff
- Trainer
For more information, visit ONC's Health IT Professional Exam website or email healthit@hrsa.gov.
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Bridging the Digital Divide
 The report, Equity in the Digital Age: How Health Information Technology Can Reduce Disparities (PDF), says that health information technology must respond to "the needs of all populations to make sure that it enhances access, facilitates enrollment and improves quality in a way that does not exacerbate existing health disparities for the most marginalized and underserved." The report was presented at a White House summit on achieving e-health equity held by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Office of Minority Health, at both HHS, and ZeroDivide, a not-for-profit using technology to benefit underserved communities.
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