May 2015
In This Issue
FEATURE STORY

ACU at the White House

Following the enactment of H.R. 2, the President invited a number of health care organizations to a reception in the White House Rose Garden - including ACU! The President had signed the legislation very quickly after final passage to ensure the Medicare program cuts scheduled to go into effect did not occur, so a reception was organized in lieu of a signing ceremony. ACU's Executive Director Craig Kennedy attended the event and met the President and a number of other key federal officials. We are extremely proud of the work everyone did to push for the inclusion of the NHSC funding in the final legislation, and ACU was proud to represent your good work at the event. ACU's active leadership in pushing for the NHSC was reflected in our invitation and participation in this historic event, but we are most pleased that the funding for the NHSC is secure for the next two years!

Thank you all!

2015 Annual Conference
Registration Discount to End Monday!
The discounted price for our Annual Conference and Workforce Forum will expire on Monday, May 11th - so you must ACT NOW to lock in the current rate. We are very excited about the conference and look forward to meeting you there, but you have to reserve your spot today. Our room block at the Westin Alexandria is filling up fast and if you register today you will still save $150 off the full registration price. 

register now

 

Clinical News & Resources

May is Asthma Awareness Month

Visit AsthmaCommunityNetwork.org frequently this May to share your successful strategies and to learn from and collaborate with others to achieve one common goal: to help people with asthma live the healthy and active lives they deserve. It is time to celebrate your achievements in asthma management! Programs like yours are delivering critical services to individuals, families and communities. As you grow and advance your program, take time to reflect on your work and the difference you continue to make in the lives of people with asthma in your community.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Tuesday its first-ever national study of the leading causes of death as well as risk factors, disease prevalence and access to health services among U.S. Hispanics. It found that while the death rate among the nation's fastest-growing ethnic group is 24 percent lower than non-Hispanic whites, the Latino community is hit hard by certain diseases and conditions. (NBC News)

 

How Big Data Will Customize Our Health Care

Data is the future of health. Advances in wearables, like the Apple Watch, and other monitoring tools will bring new meaning to the term, "self aware." For many, devices will track where we go, what we eat and how we sleep. The result will be a torrent of data documenting our bodily functions in real time. In essence, medical technology will create a synthetic nervous system run in parallel with our natural one. The opportunities for tweaking various systems will be tremendous. The challenge will be how to process all of this new data. (Wall Street Journal)

 

Virtual Visits - Confronting The Challenges Of Telemedicine

Despite the many ways in which telemedicine may transform health care for the better, it faces a number of major challenges along the way. First, there are enduring concerns about its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The aforementioned benefits are theoretical, and the actual data to date are far from convincing. Most studies of telemedicine are methodologically weak before-and-after studies that rarely examine patient-centered outcomes, instead focusing on feasibility and acceptability to patients. Although these aspects are important, they are not the same as - and may not correlate with - patient-centered outcomes such as mortality and functional status. (NEJM)

 

Depression And Suicide Among Physician Trainees

In the first 2 months of the 2014-2015 academic year, 2 New York City medical interns died in apparent suicides. In response, an intern from Yale School of Medicine wrote an op-ed in the New York Times highlighting the link between medical training and isolation, depression, and suicide among trainees. Physician suicide is a common occurrence. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 300 to 400 physicians commit suicide each year, approximately 1 physician per day. Medical training involves numerous risk factors for mental illness, such as role transition, decreased sleep, relocation resulting in fewer available support systems, and feelings of isolation. A substantial body of evidence has demonstrated that trainees in particular are at high risk for depression and suicidal thinking, but many training programs have not been able to identify and provide treatment for these residents and fellows in a systematic way. (JAMA Psychiatry)

 

The recently launched Collaborative for Effective Prescription Opioid Policies (CEPOP) engages diverse stakeholders behind a comprehensive and balanced public policy strategy to reduce prescription opioid abuse and promote treatment options, both for those living with chronic pain and confronting addiction. 

 

Policy Update

Senator Introduces Bill to Expand NHSC to Jails

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation expanding the eligible placement sites for the National Health Service Corps to include county and municipal jails. To date, only state and federal prisons were eligible for NHSC placements. The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved has supported the legislation, recognizing the critical need for primary care providers in these facilities. 

 

When an HIV Crisis Trumps Ideology On Drug Policy

While HIV/AIDS prevention is more frequently discussed in the context of safe-sex practices, the virus's transmission among intravenous drug users has sparked a debate about needle-exchange programs since the onset of the epidemic in the early 1980s, said William McColl, director of health policy at AIDS United. The policy has always been a tough sell politically in the "Just Say No" culture toward drugs. (The Atlantic)

 

How To Rein In Out-Of-Control Health Care Costs

By now we have heard the stories about unconscionable medical bills causing financial harms for patients. ... We have accepted that healthcare costs are out of control and causing real constraints on every level from individuals to communities to businesses to states to our nation. OK, but now, what are we supposed to do about it? For starters, we can supply a pipeline for change by embedding the principles of value-based care into the apprenticeship of health professional education. (MedPage Today)

 

How To Solve The E.R. Problem

Back in 2009, a big selling point of health care reform was the idea that expanding insurance coverage would increase Americans' access to preventive and primary care and decrease the unnecessary use of emergency rooms, saving billions. ... There is one big problem with this logic: data. A new survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 75 percent of emergency room doctors reported increases in patient volume since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. ... Opponents of the Affordable Care Act point to these increases as confirmation that yet another promise of the law was false. But these failures do not mean that the emergency room problem is unsolvable, just that insurance coverage alone is insufficient. (The New York Times)

 

ObamaCare Penalty Could Be Too Low, Analysis Finds

A new analysis highlights that it is often cheaper for people to pay ObamaCare's penalty for not having health insurance than to buy coverage, meaning the penalty might be too low to spur middle-income people to get covered. The analysis from the consulting firm Avalere Health finds that for people making less than 200 percent of the poverty line, or about $23,000, purchasing insurance is usually cheaper because of income-based subsidies under the law. (The Hill)

 

Paying Medicaid Enrollees To Get Checkups, Quit Smoking and Lose Weight: Will It Pay Off?

Like wellness programs in the private sector, more than a dozen states are offering incentives to Medicaid enrollees to spur them to make healthier decisions -- and potentially save taxpayers money. (Kaiser Health News)

 

Grants

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released the Community Interoperability and Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). "The program will provide funds to entities to work collaboratively with non-eligible care providers to identify opportunities to support and extend the use of secure, interoperable health information technology (health IT) tools and health information exchange (HIE) services." (deadline for notices of intent is May 15th, applications are due on June 15th.)


The USDA Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research (BECR) at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is seeking applicants for the New Perspectives Fellowship, "which aims to provide mentorship, training, and a seed grant to expand the number of researchers from under-represented populations conducting research on healthy food choice using behavioral economic strategies.
Careers

ACU CAREER CENTER

Apply for 13,082 Jobs from 1,031 Employers hiring today in the ACU Career Center, including these: 


There are many opportunities for primary care physicians in New Hampshire, Montana, Wisconsin and more. Search the ACU Career Center today.

Conferences & Webinars
UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND WEBINARS
ACU supports the health care workforce by providing opportunities for continued professional development and interaction with other health professionals committed to the underserved.

 

For Scholarships and fellowships - click here

For Archived programs - click here

 

2015 NNPHI Annual Conference-Building Healthy Communities in Our Connected World: A Vision for 2020

Hosted by National Network of Public Health Institutes

May 12th -14th

New Orleans, Louisiana

For more information and to register 

 

The Economics of Prevention: Strategic Investment for Public Good and Public Savings; Pay for Success/Social Impact Bond Legislation

Sponsored by the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives

Thursday, May 14th, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m. 

210 Cannon House Office Building

 

Connecting Public Health and Food Service Operators: Culinary Techniques for Reducing Sodium

Sponsored by the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and the National Network of Public Health Institutes, in collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America. 

Tuesday, May 19th, 2:00 p.m. (EDT) - webinar

To RSVP

 

Becoming the Healthiest Nation: Addressing the Multiple Determinants of Asian American and Pacific Islander Health

Sponsored by Dialogue4Health, a project of the Public Health Institute

Tuesday, May 19th, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (EDT) - webinar

To register  

 

Who's Leading the Leading Health Indicators?: Tobacco  

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Thursday, May 21st, Noon - 1:00 p.m. (EDT) - webinar

To register

  

Social Determinants of Health - Where You Live Matters

Minnesota Public Health Association (MPHA) Annual Conference 

May 28th - 29th

Duluth, MN

For more information and to register 

 

2015 Annual Conference and Workforce Forum: Empowering Clinicians and Communities

Sponsored by the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved

June 1st - 3rd

Westin Alexandria, Alexandria, VA

To register