Monday, April 30, 2012

Public Health Education Resource


If you've been looking for a public health education resource the information below is a great place to start. Should you have any questions we'd happily put you in contact with the creators. Feel free to e-mail me at lauren.page.black@gmail.com should you wish to speak with them.

Have a great week!
Lauren-Page
AMA Committee on Global and Public Health 

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In response to an informal needs assessment administered by the Regional Medicine-Public Health Education Centers Initiative (an effort to better integrate public health content and skills into medical education supported by AAMC’s cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and the AAMC’s Organization of Student Representatives (OSR), we have developed a modular power point presentation that we hope will be a helpful resource for students and faculty at your institution.

These slides were developed for medical students and faculty. They provide an overview of the relationship between medicine and public health, review why public health is relevant to medical education and careers, and include recommendations and resources to improve public health content in medical education.

Users may select slides and incorporate them into their curricula, presentations, and other efforts to advocate for improving public health perspectives at their institutions.

The slides are divided into seven sections to facilitate their use:

•What is public health? What is the relationship between medicine and public health?
•What determines health?
•How is public health important to your training and careers?
•What do we know about student perspectives on public health in medical education?
•Enhancing public health in your curriculum and training
•Specializing in Public Health and Preventive Medicine
•Resources
•CDC Professional Student Programs and the Epidemic Intelligence Service

The slide-set can be accessed online at www.aamc.org/rmphec at the bottom of the right-hand column under Student Resources.
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Friday, April 13, 2012

There’s more to food culture than just restaurants

Actor Wendell Pierce, best known for his roles on HBO’s “The Wire” and “Treme,” is now a proud business owner in his hometown of New Orleans. After opening a convenience store this winter, he and a local business partner plan to open a string of grocery stores beginning this summer. His aim is two-fold: to encourage economic growth in New Orleans and to bring nutritious and affordable food to a food desert.

The lack of grocery stores in New Orleans is a problem made more prominent post-Katrina. The majority of the 21 supermarkets that do exist today are not close to the areas hardest hit. A 2007 survey from Tulane showed that although 58% of low-income residents do not have access to a car, 60% must travel a considerable distance (3 miles) to reach a grocery store.

At first, Pierce intended to come back to New Orleans and just build houses but soon recognized that convenient access to healthy food was necessary for the successful revitalization of the neighborhood. “You start to realize all the parts of infrastructure that are needed,” he comments on his newfound awareness of the complex inter-connectedness of basic necessities.

With the opening of Sterling Farms, his new full-service grocery store, Pierce hopes to revive the sense of community surrounding food that he says characterized much of his childhood. In addition to all the expected services of a grocery store, Sterling Farms will address the specific needs of this community by providing a free shuttle for shoppers and a monthly cookout to raise community funds. Since losing a bid to launch the stores in his own neighborhood of Pontchartrain Park, Pierce has looked elsewhere. Sterling Farms will be located across the Mississippi in Marrero, LA, a neighborhood in which a quarter of households earn less than $25,000 a year. In lieu of a fixed rent, he will pay 2% of sales that exceed $9 million yearly.

Pierce acknowledges the parallels between the lessons he is learning and his personal frustrations with systemic malfunction and those depicted in “The Wire” and “Treme.” “It’s life imitating art, and art imitating life,” Mr. Pierce said.

Check out the full New York Times article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/dining/wendell-pierce-to-open-a-grocery-store-in-new-orleans.html?hp