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May is Asthma Awareness Month 
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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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Kathie Westpheling to Retire
ACU will soon bid adieu to Kathie Westpheling, MPH, who has served as executive director since 2002. She is a passionate advocate for the underserved, transdisciplinary care, health professions education, and health information technology. Kathie began her career at ACU in 1996 as the project director for the NHSC 25th Anniversary Initiative. She oversaw the relocation of the organization from its headquarters in Lexington, KY, to its current home in the Washington, DC area.
Under her leadership, ACU has become known for its work on access to care, language, culture and literacy, and the primary care workforce. Westpheling shared, "I always envisioned ACU to be an organization where all of my former students, preceptors, and professional colleagues working on the front lines in primary care and public health could find a national home. A nutritionist by training, I have been an advocate for the team approach to health care. ACU is all about sharing one's knowledge and skills, with trust and respect, for the benefit of the patient in the community. I want to thank the ACU board, staff, and members who have supported me in my various roles here at ACU and for teaching me so much about health care on the front lines. It has been and will continue to be my honor and privilege to tell your stories."
ACU Board President Katherine Brieger praised Westpheling, saying, "Kathie has been a tireless advocate for ACU and its members. She has mentored numerous health professionals who have built careers serving the poor and underserved. We will miss her enthusiasm for this work but know that she will continue to advise the board on matters related to ACU and our mission."
Kathie previously worked for the American Medical Student Association from 1985-1996. Although stepping down from the day-to-day running of ACU, she will continue to consult on issues including the primary care workforce and health information technology, while spending more time with her husband Paul.
In lieu of gifts, Kathie has requested donations to ACU in support of the ACU internship program which focuses on public policy and advocacy. If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution,please donate here.
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Haitian Patient Ed on Diabetes
 ACU is making available eight patient education flyers on living with diabetes newly translated into Haitian Creole (also known as HC or Kreyol). The flyers are written in simple, plain language for low literacy audiences. Clinicians can download and print them on demand. The flyers are also available in English and Spanish. Access the flyers in all three languages here.
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Asthma Awareness Month Resources
 When you can't breathe, nothing else matters. While asthma sufferers cannot take breathing for granted, well-trained clinicians can do a lot to help them breathe easier. ACU's resources are intended to help clinicians mitigate the disproportionate effect of asthma on the underserved. Among the resources on our website are:
- Comprehensive Asthma Resource List - newly updated with everything you need to create an asthma care home for your patients, including clinical guidelines, patient education and self-management materials, policy briefs, asthma reports, clinical toolkits, mobile technology and asthma information, and smoking cessation and tobacco materials. Many of the resources are available in both English and Spanish, and some in other languages, including Chinese.
- Building a Comprehensive Asthma Care Home: Engaging Clinicians, Patients and Caregivers in Comprehensive Asthma Management - a continuing professional education program offered by ACU and the Clinical Directors Network (CDN); approved for 1.0 prescribed credits by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
- Smartphone App on Nicotine Addiction - includes six brief questions that clinicians can ask patients to measure their nicotine dependence.
- TobaccoFree - information and resources on the most effective interventions for underserved patients to empower them to quit.
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Welcome New Members!
ACU is pleased to welcome six new members who joined in April:
Colleen Anderson, Ryan Buchholz, Isake Lockett Holloway, Lori Martin, Robert Schiller, and Kristine Schmitz.
Welcome all! |
Health in Public Housing Conference
ACU's work on diabetes group visits and asthma management will be featured at the 2013 Health Center and Public Housing National Symposium in Denver, CO on June 4-6. Lois Wessel, ACU Associate Director for Programs, will present Diabetes Group Visits in the Patient- Centered Medical Home. Anna Gard, ACU Health Disparities consultant, will present on asthma management and development and integration of a clinical decision support tool in the electronic health record.
The conference is jointly sponsored by Community Health Partners for Sustainability and the National Center for Health in Public Housing. It is intended for health center administrators and clinicians, public housing advocates, and others involved with or interested in the provision of safety-net care for public housing residents and other at-risk populations. More information and registration online.
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Free and Student-Run Clinics
 Free Clinics: Local Responses to Health Care Needs (V. Brennan, ed.), a new book from Johns Hopkins University Press, presents the wide array of approaches communities throughout the U.S. have taken to providing health care to people who would otherwise go without. Unlike federally qualified health centers, free clinics operate with few regulatory constraints or government supplied models. The resulting montage is quite thought provoking. ACU Associate Director for Programs, Lois Wessel, FNP contributed a chapter on "Nurse Practitioners in Community Health."
ACU readers receive a 25 percent discount when ordering through Johns Hopkins University Press, either online or with this order form. Use promo code: NAF. The book is also available from Amazon and eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime.
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Take charge of your career. See what opportunities await you in the ACU Career Center. Employers, check out the talent. Post your positions in the ACU Career Center today. ACU members receive a 20% discount on all career center postings. Use promo code ACU20.
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Conferences and E-Learning
May 1, May 29 and June 26, 2-3 p.m. ET, a free, three-part webinar series on Primary Care for our Aging Population intended to improve the geriatric health workforce in community health centers. A joint offering of Community Health Partners for Sustainability, the National Center for Health and the Aging and the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing.
May 29-30, The Eighth Annual NIH Pain Consortium Symposium on Advances in Pain Research takes place on the NIH campus. The focus is on "Integrated Self-Management Strategies for Chronic Pain." Researchers, health professionals, and the public are welcome.
June 4 - 6, the 2013 Health Center and Public Housing National Symposium in Denver, CO, presented by Community Health Partners for Sustainability and the National Center for Health in Public Housing.
November 10 - 13, the 2013 National Primary Oral Health Conference sponsored by the National Network for Oral Health Access in Denver, CO, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The largest gathering of health center oral health program staff and the primary venue for Health Center Dental Directors and their support teams to share quality improvement best practices, obtain clinical and administrative continuing education, and attend sessions on emerging oral health issues. |
Scholarships and Fellowships
 IHI Open School - ACU will award up to 20 scholarships to members to attend the IHI Open School online courses free for one year. The IHI Open School focuses on health care improvement (view course and certificates here). To apply, please complete the ACU application form. Read more...
UCLA Anderson School of Management - apply now for the 2013 UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program to be held July 7-17at UCLA in Los Angeles. This management and leadership development program is especially designed and valuable for community health centers to prepare them for the Affordable Care Act. Applications are due May 15, 2013. More information and the application are available here.
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Pain Management in Correctional Settings
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care has issued a guideline on chronic noncancer pain management in correctional settings. The guidelines address a challenging area, as a growing number of detainees enter correctional facilities each year with prescriptions for opioids, which are problematic in correctional settings due to risk factors such as substance abuse, psychological and physiological dependence, drug diversion, overdose and complications. In addition, continuity of opioid care is challenging because few community physicians are willing to prescribe it for persons recently released from a correctional facility. The guideline is available for free download at www.ncchc.org/guidelines.
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ICD-10 Update
C MS provides two free ICD-10 video lectures and an expert articleto assist physicians and health care providers in transitioning to ICD-10. Continuing medical education (CME) credits are available for physicians who complete the module, and anyone who completes the module will receive a certificate of completion. While focused on guidance for physicians relative to office coding, these are good tools to learn more about ICD 10 and to aid physicians, other health care providers, administrators and students in learning more about the transition to ICD 10. |
Diabetes Disparities
The American Diabetes Association has issued a call for abstracts and products for the 6th Disparities Partnership Forum on Diabetes Care in High Risk Populations, A Rising Threat, the Impact of Social Determinants of Health. The conference will be held Oct. 21-22, 2013, in Arlington, VA. The submission deadline is July 19, 2013. Details available online.
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HIT in Rural Communities
 A demonstration project involving 51 primary care practices in seven predominantly rural Colorado counties is demonstrating improvements in quality of care through use of health IT. The Colorado Beacon Consortium, part of the federally-funded Beacon Community Program, is a learning collaborative focused on improving the local health IT infrastructure, including use of electronic health records and analytic tools for quality measurement and improvement. Read the case study Strengthening the Capacity for Health Care Delivery Transformation in Rural Counties , published by the Commonwealth Fund. |
Free for Patients with Diabetes
 Newly diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes have a host of questions. The Where Do I Begin? booklet is available in English and bilingual Spanish from the American Diabetes Association. You can order free copies of Where Do I Begin? to give to patients looking for more information on living well with diabetes at diabetes.org/clinicians.
Patients can enroll in Living With Type 2 Diabetes, a free 12-month program That offers information, recipes, tips and more. Patients can enroll at diabetes.org/living.
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New Funding Platform for Health Projects
 Clinicians with great ideas for community health programs have a new source to look to for small grants to get them off the ground. ACU member Dr. Rishi Manchanda, a co-founder of HBFunder (http://www.hbfunder.org/) says, "Like many frontline providers, we have seen how hard it can be to get funding for small projects that can have a big impact on social determinants of health and healthcare for vulnerable populations."
HBFunder connects donors with people in healthcare and community nonprofits with great ideas for improving the health of patients and neighborhoods. Projects already online range from a community garden that brings healthy food to downtown LA residents to a project that trains community health workers to help indigenous populations in Mexico.
Innovators simply post their projects on HBfunder.org, set a fundraising goal and share the project with supporters through social media. Dr. Manchanda says, "We invite anyone with a project that helps improve local social determinants of health to raise extra funds with HBFunder. We are particularly interested in projects that represent clinic-community partnerships."
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