I always find something interesting among the masses of press releases about recent studies. Here are just two examples that had me saying “Whaaat?!” Enjoy!

• Head and Neck Cancer Linked to HPV
• Likelihood of Heart Defects Linked to Mother’s Weight

The full documentary by Tonya Lewis Lee is posted on the OMH site, so feel free to watch, link to and pass around. Enjoy!

There’s an audioconference slated for this Wednesday at 3 p.m., about health disparities. However, this one-hour conference focuses on the issue from a hospital setting. Apparently two hospitals will be used as examples for this conversation, and although I shouldn’t be overly excited by this topic, I’m getting a little giddy. As always, I’m a big proponent of prevention, but I feel like health care professionals—mainly the ones who don’t seem to do much of the caring—can really screw you and your chances of getting better if they don’t give you the time and treatment you deserve.  Ok, so before I get on my soapbox, I’ll just post the info and keep it moving. Hope you can make it!

This audioconference highlights the strategies of two hospitals to deal with challenges that contribute to health disparities. Presentations will include approaches to caring for sickle cell patients outside the emergency room, reaching out to Hispanic women for mammography screenings, and providing multiple language services to navigate the health care system throughout the continuum of care. Presenters will discuss their successes as well as challenges they faced within the hospital and in their local communities.

Moderator: John W. Bluford, President and Chief Executive Officer, Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, MO

Presenters (click on links for more information):

Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA – Community House Calls works with community leaders to help navigate health, social, education and legal services.Presenters: Bria Chakofsky-Lewy, RN, Supervisor, Community House Calls/Interpreter Services, and Martine Pierre-Louis, Director, Interpreter Services/Community House Calls

Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, MO – The Sickle Cell Disease Clinic provides a patient-centered medical home to effectively and efficiently manage patients’ needs, reduce episodes of crisis, and mitigate severity of complications for adult sickle cell disease. Presenter: Dawn Sutton, Director of Medicine and Specialty Care Ambulatory Services

To register for this complimentary audioconference, please click here to complete a brief on-line registration form. If you should have any questions, please contact us at hpoe@aha.org.

The White House has issued a call to action to help curtail the spread of HIV. Through the Office of National AIDS Policy webpage, people can submit their ideas to address the national strategy goals. Online submission will be received until Nov. 13, 2009.

In a little over a week, CMS will close its site down to public comments about HIV testing being a Medicare-covered preventive service. So if this is something you feel passionately about, make sure you voice your opinion before next Friday (Oct. 9).

The Advisory Committee on Minority Health members will meet Oct. 20 in Washington, D.C., to discuss health care reform, health disparities, cultural competency, research and evaluation. The meeting is open to the public, but registration is required. And if you want to ask questions, apparently those have to be submitted beforehand… so much for spontaneity.

Apparently the average person isn’t doing too well when it comes to having a proper diet. All states are falling below recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption, according to the CDC.   You can see the State Indicator Report for this year online. But basically, the average person should have two servings of fruit a day and three or more vegetables a day. Only about 33 percent of adults met the Healthy People 2010 standard for fruits and 27 percent met the standard for vegetables.

I rarely put up requests such as these, but I’m writing an article that deals with the issue of adolescents and suicide and am looking for someone to interview who may be recovering from suicide (including thoughts and attempts). I’m trying to find a black person because the article is based off of this study about black adolescents and the increase in suicide rates for this group. If anyone wouldn’t mind being interviewed or knows someone who wouldn’t mind being interviewed, please feel free to drop a comment. Thanks in advance!

The Congressional Black Caucus honored Tonya Lewis Lee today at their Fall Health Braintrust event in D.C.  You can get a full rundown on that highlight here.

The Advisory Committee on Minority Health submitted their report to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with suggestions ensuring that health care reform meets health care needs of minority communities and eliminates health disparities.  So if you’re interested in what they are recommending, you can access the PDF here.