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Volume 6, No. 2, February 2008
From Your Colleagues
Sally Bremner, Univ. of Alaska Library
Hospital-Acquired Infections: What You Should Know
This issue focuses on hospital-acquired infections – a growing menace that is adding hugely to healthcare costs, while causing people much suffering and needless deaths. Increasingly hospitals are being held accountable, but the situation is grave as microbes continually adapt to our antibiotic arsenal, and growing ever more resistant.
It’s unthinkable to contemplate returning to the pre-antibiotic era, so read on and learn how you can protect yourself and those you care for.
http://consortiumlibrary.org/hsis/about/newsletters/Dec07.pdf
Sally Bremner afsjb@uaa.alaska.edu
Shannon Meyers, PIMC
Save the Dates!! Earn up to 28 hours of CME/CE specific to Indian Health
8th Annual Advances in Indian Health
UNM Continuing Education Building
1634 University Blvd., NE , Albuquerque, New Mexico
April 29 – May 2, 2008
The Advances in Indian Health (AIH) Conference is Indian Country’s Primary Care Conference and is offered for primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians who work with American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) populations at federal, tribal and urban sites. Medical students and residents who are interested in serving these populations are also welcome as space allows. Again this year, there is no fee to attend the conference.
Special Opportunities at AIH:
-Diabetes Track—new this year and co-sponsored by the IHS Division of Diabetes Treatment and Prevention, this will give interested attendees the chance to get up to 16 hours of diabetes-specific clinical training. Every workshop block will have at least one diabetes option in addition to the usual mix of topics at AIH.
-Office Based Opioid Treatment (OBOT) Training led by Drs. Tony Dekker and Miriam Komarmy will again be offered at this year’s conference—on the afternoon/evening of Tuesday April 29th. The first 4 hours of the course will be offered as workshop choices for those not taking the full OBOT training. Dinner will be provided for those taking the full 8 hour training. There will be more information regarding this training on the conference brochure or contact Dr. Dekker at dekkerclan@aol.com or Anthony.dekker@ihs.gov We are still working to get APN and PA eligibility waivers for the DEA for DATA 2000. Please RSVP with Dr. Dekker for this program.
-This year’s AIH is in collaboration with the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) and Physician Assistant (PA) groups and is in lieu of their own separate meeting this year - a special invitation is extended to all PAs and APNs.
Both new and experienced attendees will learn about advances in clinical care specifically relevant to AI/AN populations. Opportunities to learn from experienced career clinicians who are experts in Native people’s health will be emphasized. Indian Health Service Chief Clinical Consultants and disease control program directors will be available for consultation and program development.
The conference format includes three and a half days of lectures and workshops. In early spring, the brochure will be posted on the UNM CME web site at http://hsc.unm.edu/cme. For additional information please contact Kathy Breckenridge, University of New Mexico Office of Continuing Medical Education at (505) 272-3942, or email the UNM Office of Continuing Medical Education to request a brochure at CMEWeb@salud.unm.edu .
If you have attended the conference in the past two years, you are already on our mailing list and a brochure will be mailed to you.
Presented by: IHS - UNM Health Sciences Center School of Medicine - Indian Health Service & Office of Continuing Medical Education
Sunnah Kim, American Academy of Pediatrics
Native American Child Health Advocacy Award
As many of you are aware, the AAP has a national award to recognize an individual who has made a major contribution to Native American child health. Do you know a physician or non-physician who is worthy of this recognition? If so, I would like to encourage you to submit a nomination.
To have your nominee considered for the 2008 Award, please submit your nomination by February 29, 2008. Please submit a letter of nomination, along with the candidate's contact information to:
Committee on Native American Child Health
American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Fax: 847/434-8729
indianhealth@aap.org
The 2008 Native American Child Health Advocacy Award will be presented in October 2008 in conjunction with the AAP National Conference and Exhibition in Boston, MA.
Thanks,
Sunnah
Chuck North, HQE
Partnership with Mountain and Plains Educational Resource Center
I have recently spoken with representatives from the above center in Denver, Colorado. They have a vested interest in supporting occupational and environmental activities within tribal communities located in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. They were successful in getting funding through NIOSH with the intent of providing services to tribal communities (http://www.coloradosph.org/maperc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=51).
They have asked for input related to providing occupational medicine continuing education. Some of their current offerings can be found at
http://hsc.unm.edu/cme/2008Web/Occ%20Med/Occ%20Med%20Brochure%20FINAL.pdf
or
http://www.rmaoem.org/cme-quar.htm.
They are interested in providing services to physicians and nurses within IHS and tribal communities. Can you share this information with your contacts in the Areas and with physicians that have an interest and are active in occupational medicine within IHS? Thanks. Let me know if you have questions or would like additional contact information for the staff at the MAP ERC
Jennifer Staple, Yale University
Unite For Sight Volunteer Abroad Opportunities: As Featured Weekly On CNN
Currently accepting applications for January 2008 through January 2009.
Rolling application deadline - the first qualified applicants are accepted. Apply today!
Volunteer Abroad in Summer, Fall, Winter, or Spring
Save Eyes and Lives. Every Eye, A Life.
Those who are blind in Africa have a four times higher mortality rate
60-80% of children who become blind die within 1-2 years
80% of blindness is curable or preventable
How Do I Apply? The application as well as complete details about Unite For Sight's international opportunities are available at http://uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer/
What is Unite For Sight's Mission? Unite For Sight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness.
Unite For Sight's work to prevent blindness and restore sight is featured weekly on CNN INTERNATIONAL from September 2007-August 2008
Who Is Eligible to Participate? The Unite For Sight internship is open to individuals 18 years and older, and there is no upper age limit. Volunteers range from undergraduate students to medical students, public health students and professionals, nurses, physician's assistants, teachers and educators, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, doctors, opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists.
What Do Volunteers Do? Volunteers receive hands-on clinical experience while assisting doctors in remote, rural villages. Volunteers learn about international health and eye care, learn clinical skills while working with patients and doctors, and, in one program location, have an opportunity to perform cataract surgery on a goat's eye.
The goal of Unite For Sight and its partner eye clinics and communities is to create eye disease-free communities. Unite For Sight’s volunteers (local and visiting) work with partner eye clinics to provide eye care in communities without previous access. The eye clinic’s eye doctors and Unite For Sight volunteers jointly provide community-based screening programs in rural villages. The clinic’s eye doctors diagnose and treat eye disease in the field, and surgical patients are brought to the eye clinic for surgery. Patients receive free surgery funded by Unite For Sight so that no patient remains blind due to lack of funds. Volunteers immediately see the joy on patients' faces when their sight is restored after years of blindness. These memories last a lifetime.
While helping the community, volunteers are in a position to witness and draw their own conclusions about the failures and inequities of global health systems. It broadens their view of what works, and what role they can have to insure a health system that works for everyone and that leaves no person blind in the future.
What Do Volunteers Say?
“During my volunteering experience, I realized that Unite for Sight’s service is a campaign for the salvation of humanity that allows the light of compassion to shine through each of us. I believe it is this display of altruism and commitment that makes the organization’s service so virtuous and treasured by both volunteers and patients. After all, making a difference in the world is not so difficult if only one would care enough to sacrifice a part of oneself in order to change the world for the better. My experience as a Unite for Sight volunteer has inspired me to dedicate my future career to serving underprivileged communities around the world.”—Chiwing “Jessica” Qu, Yale University Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in India 2007
"Without Unite for Sight, I cannot imagine how I could possibly have seen and learned so much as an undergraduate about medicine, other cultures, and my own desire and ability to make a difference in others' lives."--Charlotte Hogan, Georgetown University Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in India 2006 and Ghana 2005
"I can honestly say that everything I learned in 3 years of medical school paled in comparison to the 3 week experience I had in Accra ( Ghana) in October 2007 as part of Unite For Sight. The program provides volunteers with a unique and hands-on involvement – being able to help out to the level of your training and comfort. My experience taught me that Ghanaian people are the friendliest people I have interacted with anywhere in the world, that ordinary people involved with Unite For Sight are making extraordinary differences, and that sitting in a classroom receiving a world-class education cannot match real life experiences while volunteering."--Varun Verma, UMDNJ Medical Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Accra, Ghana.
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OB/GYN
Dr. Neil Murphy is the Obstetrics and Gynecology Chief Clinical Consultant (OB/GYN C.C.C.). Dr. Murphy is very interested in establishing a dialogue and/or networking with anyone involved in women's health or maternal child health, especially as it applies to Native or indigenous peoples around the world. Please don't hesitate to contact him by e-mail or phone at 907-729-3154.
