As 2021 starts to gain momentum, don't forget to register for our annual conference, Preventive Medicine 2021, May 15-16. We will hold a conference this year despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and are currently planning in-person and virtual sessions. The Board of Regents meets on March 8 to make a final determination about our ability to have in-person sessions, move to an all-virtual format in May or postpone the conference to the fall. Staff are gathering the information needed to analyze our options and make the best decision possible. Your registration for the meeting is an important gauge of interest and availability for the meeting. Registration fees will be adjusted accordingly based on the Board’s decision.

As the Board contemplates its decision for a COVID-era conference, each of us are making decisions daily about our activities. For most of the past year, I thought about COVID risk with respect to population risk. How would my decisions and activities create risk for my husband (age risk), friends (age and chronic disease risk) or community (tourist economy)? I advised jurisdictional decision-making and discussed issues with the media from that perspective. I was more concerned with public health considerations because I had a great deal of control in minimizing my own risk. And it was easy to justify declining most activities on the grounds of protecting others.

My risk calculus has shifted recently. As pandemic fatigue has set in within the community and as more of my contacts have been vaccinated, my own decisions are more complicated and focused on my own health. I am experiencing greater expectation that I will “loosen up” my own activities or be accepting of others who broaden their social bubbles. But I will be among the last group to be vaccinated because of my age, occupational situation, and overall health. And, I am recovering from knee surgery and have a lot of physical rehabilitation work to do. I do not have the time or, frankly, the physical or mental resilience, to cope with COVID-19 illness or its potential sequelae. So, my decisions are now more personal, and it is more uncomfortable declining activities when my rationale is perceived to be overly cautious or even selfish.

We have all been making these personal and professional risk assessments for a long time with shifting personal and community circumstances. Numerous protocols, algorithms, guidance, recommendations, policies, risk “meters” and infographics have been disseminated to help communities make decisions and to help individuals understand the context in which they are making personal decisions. But it seems that individual decisions require knowing and controlling for so many parameters that we are asking people to essentially do a multi-factor logistic regression analysis in their heads. 

I have been musing about whether our professional society could provide some help in this regard. As the profession that straddles lifestyle, clinical and public health medicine could we not quickly come together to develop a tool to help people navigate all the choices they must now make given their individual circumstances and the evolving community-level situation in which they find themselves? 

I would love to hear your ideas about how to do this. Do you know of effective small-scale examples that could be expanded, tailored and quickly developed and disseminated? Do you have a big idea but aren’t sure how to implement it? Are you aware of funding sources that might support rapid development of such a tool? There are multiple ways to share your ideas:

Thanks in advance for your ideas and, as always, for your generosity!

Stephanie Zaza, MD, MPH, FACPM

President, ACPM

Registration is ongoing for Preventive Medicine 2021!

Dr. Michele Soltis  - Track Vice Chair-Research, Evidence & Policy

Michele Soltis is currently assigned as the Director of the Public Health Directorate at the Office of The Army Surgeon General in Falls Church, Virginia. As an Army preventive medicine physician, she has had the privilege to serve as Director of the Public Health Residency Program at Madigan Army Medical Center and as a Preventive Medicine Officer with the 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Michele earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington School of Public Health. She is very much looking forward to sharing and celebrating the incredible and inspiring work of the ACPM and its members during Preventive Medicine 2021!

We want to recognize our members who have been championing efforts to control hypertension at the clinical, health system or population levels. If you have been working on any aspect of hypertension control, contact Anita Balan at [email protected] to share your story.

The goal of the Learning Collaborative is to explore strategies for clinics and communities to prevent high blood pressure among African American adults. The Collaborative is a forum for sharing promising practices, innovative ideas and lessons learned in four areas: 

 

Sessions occur on a quarterly basis and are conducted through webinar, offering two brief presentations and an opportunity for questions. Participants may opt to share their contact information with others for off-line follow-up.

If you would like to participate, please send a request to ACPM Program Assistant, Stephanie Madrigal at [email protected] and you will be added to the mailing list.

Mary Beth Arensberg, PhD, RDN, LDN, FAND

As Americans prepare to receive COVID-19 vaccines, it is a good time to reinforce the importance of nutrition. Good nutrition is critical for immunity. It supports the body’s ability to respond to an immune challenge, whether that challenge is exposure to a new virus or a new vaccine.

Vaccines may be less effective in stimulating an immune response in those who are undernourished, including older adults. Nutrition is one of the factors potentially impacting immunosenescence, which is the gradual decline of immunity with age. Older adults are disproportionately affected by malnutrition and COVID 19 has likely further compounded their malnutrition risk.

Government and community nutrition programs can help address older adult malnutrition. Several of these programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and congregate and home-delivered nutrition services supported by the Older Americans Act have received increased funding through federal COVID-19 legislation.

Priority nutrients for good immune health are protein, vitamins (particularly Vitamins A, D, C, E) and minerals (particularly zinc). Older adults with poor food intake or who have compromised health may need additional support to meet their nutrition needs. Oral nutritional supplements (ONS) can provide protein, vitamins, and minerals to help maintain immune health. 

More information is available on COVID-19 and nutrition through Abbott and its Abbott Nutrition Health Institute.

Join us to learn more about the recently released 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). Developed and released jointly every five years by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS), the DGA is the nation’s source for nutrition guidance to promote health and prevent disease, and the cornerstone of federal nutrition policies and programs.

Learn what’s new in this edition, including guidance for each life stage, and see free resources available for you and for the patients, clients and other consumer audiences you work with.

Join us for an exciting opportunity to hear from Bob Carr, MD, MPH, FACPM. Dr. Carr will facilitate a discussion on leadership aimed at helping early career physicians develop and polish their leadership skills. Come prepared to discuss leadership or career questions you may have. Dr. Carr is the Chief Medical Officer of Kumanu, the former Corporate Medical Director of GlaxoSmithKline, and the immediate Past-President of the American College of Preventive Medicine.

Exact Sciences Chief Medical Officer, Paul Limburg, MD, MPH, and Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Durado Brooks, MD, MPH, will be hosting a live webinar on Thursday, February 18 with viewing options at 2 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET as part of a new quarterly review of recent research relevant to colorectal cancer screening and mt-sDNA testing.

Attendees are invited to submit questions in advance to [email protected] 

Help support the future of the profession when you make your plans now to participate in ACPM’s Virtual Hill Day, Tuesday, March 16. Meetings with representatives will be held over the phone and via video-conference, and ACPM will provide tools and resources to help you be prepared to make the strongest argument possible in order to advocate effectively for increased support for preventive medicine resident programs.

The de Beaumont Foundation is now accepting applications for the second class of 40 Under 40. To be eligible, you must be: Actively working as a public health professional; a current state or local government public health employee, or someone who partners closely with a state or local health department to improve public health (“State or local” applies to departments in states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; tribal departments; and county and city departments); under 40 years old as of December 31, 2021. Learn more.

Grant Opportunity: Equity-Focused Policy Research: Building Cross-Cutting Evidence on Supports for Families with Young Children — The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Equity-Focused Policy Research (EFPR) grant program seeks to fund a body of research that illuminates strategies and policies that enhance families’ equitable access to key resources for supporting their children’s healthy development. Applications close February 16. Learn more.

Grant Opportunity: Primary Care Training and Enhancement-Community Prevention and Maternal Health — This HRSA program trains primary care physicians in maternal health care clinical services or population health in order to improve maternal health outcomes. The program will increase the number of primary care physicians trained in public health and general preventive medicine, or trained in enhanced obstetrical care to increase maternal health care expertise and the number of primary care physicians trained in enhanced obstetric care in rural and/or underserved areas. Applications close February 22, learn more.

Grant Opportunity: Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program — This HRSA program expands the number of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, health service psychologists, and/or social workers trained to provide mental health and substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder (OUD) services in underserved community-based settings that integrate primary care, mental health, and SUD services. Applicants must propose to plan, develop, and operate a 12 month full-time (24 month half-time) training program for nurse practitioners, physician assistants, health service psychologists, and/or social workers that trains practitioners to provide care for individuals in need of mental health and SUD/OUD prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Applications close February 24, learn more.

Master Home Cooking and Culinary Coaching Skills - Join Clinicians CHEF Coaching 

LEARN MORE – LIVE Information Session on the CHEF Coaching program followed by Q & A, discover how adding culinary coaching to your credentials can enhance your practice.

March 9 at 8 p.m. ET - Free registration here at http://bit.ly/ChefCoachQA

Spring cohort begins June 10, 2021, part of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine Conference – last year SOLD OUT, don’t wait!

Complete both CHEF Coaching the Basics and CHEF Coaching Beyond the Basics and receive a “Certificate of Completion in Culinary Coaching” from the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Sports- and Physical Activity–Related Concussion and Risk for Youth Violence - Richard Lowry, Et al.

Health Behaviors and Health-Related Quality of Life Among U.S. Adults Aged 18–64 Years - Chinelo C. Orji, Et al.

Cost-Effectiveness of the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign—U.S., 2012–2018 - Sundar S. Shrestha, Et al.

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