Tag: public health

Posted on in Equity, ICTs, In the News, Sustainable development, Underserved populations

Online Seminar: Globalization & health equity towards sustainable development

SDE Seminar Series towards Rio+20

Sustainable Development and Environmental Health – SDE – PAHO/WHO

Globalization & health equity towards sustainable development

Seventh Seminar: 21 March 2012 – PAHO/WHO Rio+20 (in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish)

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – Eastern Standard Time (Washington DC USA)

To check local time in WDC against your time zone, see the World Clock at:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html

Website PAHO/WHO Rio+20 at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

– Globalization is affecting social determinants of health and the health status of different population groups, within and between nations.

– Globalization creates new opportunities and risks for health and equity in health;

– How can the action on the social determinants enhance those opportunities and reduce those risks?

– Could the Rio+20 Conference strengthen opportunities and minimize the risks of globalization? How?

Towards Health-Equitable Globalisation: Rights, Regulation and Redistribution

Final Report to the Commission on Social Determinants of Health WHO –

Globalization Knowledge Network: Ronald Labonté (Chair); Ted Schrecker (Hub coordinator)

Final Report Writing Group: Ronald Labonté (Lead author); Chantal Blouin; Mickey Chopra; Kelley Lee; Corinne Packer; Mike Rowson;

Ted Schrecker ;David Woodward

Available online at: http://bit.ly/xY58AT

“….Globalization affects health and Social Determinants of Health through changes in social stratification, differential exposure or vulnerability, health system characteristics and differential consequences. It describes a number of key ‘clusters’ of pathways leading from globalization to changes in SDH ,provides an inventory of potential “interventions,” and provides a list of the specific research synthesis papers….”

See more on the Globalization and Health at: http://bit.ly/Ayqbvg

Agenda:

12:00 Introduction: Dr. Kira Fortune, Regional Advisor on Determinants of Health, PAHO/WHO

12:05 Globalization & health equity towards sustainable development: Dr. Ronald Labonté, Canada Research Chair in Globalization & Health Equity, Institute of Population Health, and Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, at the University of Ottawa

12:30 Comments: Dr. Oscar Mujica, Regional Advisor on Social Epidemiology, PAHO/WHO

12:35 Comments: Dr. Isaac Cohen, President, INVERWAY LLC

12:40 Debate

01:00 Closing remarks

Moderator: Dr. Kira Fortune, Regional Advisor on Determinants of Health, PAHO/WHO.

How to participate:

In person:

PAHO/WHO

525 23rd ST NW

Washington DC, 20037 Room 812 – 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Eastern Time (WDC)

Online: via Elluminate link:

– Spanish room: http://www.paho.org/virtual/SeminariosSDE

– English room http://www.paho.org/virtual/SDESeminars

SDE Seminar Series towards Rio+20

“Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.

They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature” – Principle 1 of the Rio…..” Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992.

The Rio Declaration of 1992 recognizes that healthy populations are central to human progress and sustainable development, and remains equally true today. However, the economic pillar has been prioritized at the expense of the social and environmental pillars of sustainable development over the last few decades, becoming itself a source of volatility and destabilization.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, now offers an opportunity to re-examine the relationship between health and sustainable development. The proposed SDE Seminar series towards Rio+20 aim at contributing to this important debate by bringing different themes of relevance to sustainable development and health to inform all areas of the Pan American Organization about the themes under discussion in the Rio Conference, but also to inform public health stakeholders and other decision makers in the health sector, to better take part in the debate.

The SDE Seminar series will happen every Wednesday from 12 to 1pm (Washington time), from February 8 to June 13th.

All Seminars will be life-streamed, and opened for participation in person at the PAHO/WHO HQ, or via Elluminate, or via telephone line.

Some of the Seminars will be in English, others in Spanish.

For those who cannot follow the seminar alive, they will be available later at PAHO Rio+20 Toolkit at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

KMC/2012/SDE

Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

Posted on in ICTs, New Media, Social Entrepreneurship/Innovation

Gaming for health in the region

Last Thursday, I again joined the folks over at eSAC for their weekly tweet chats. I have to say, I really enjoyed the conversation. For me, one of the most interesting turns of the night was the discussion about digital literacy, health literacy and public ehealth.

The chat also touched on how people use various media in their everyday life, and whether these intersect with the health sector. For example, some young people use the internet daily, but never use it to look for health information.

This segment also got be thinking about how prevalent video games are in our society, and whether there are any interventions or programs in the region that uses video games for health promotion or disease prevention. I tried doing a general online search to find people or places for examples and came up with nothing. Well, I did come across an animation studio in Trinidad (as well at the animation program at the university of Trinidad and Tobago) that look to be doing some cool things. I did not find examples of any health projects but this is one lead I’ll continue to follow.

In the meantime, anyone interested in knowing more about this area, the talk below gives an excellent overview.

So, to all my CH people, do you know of any entity that is using any kind of video games/animation/claymation/ for health? If you are actively involved in any interactive projects addressing any health issue afflicting the region, we would love to share your project with our community.

 

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Posted on in Uncategorized

Tell me more about your field…

Image Courtesy AHRQ

A friend asked me tonight to give an overview of my field – public health. Of course, I could not do that. First, I am fairly new to public health, after working in marketing for two years and completing my master’s degree. Second, the field is way too broad and figuring out an entry point definitely depends on what you do within public health. And for me, this is health communication. So, I will share below part of the conversation we had, which is basically me trying to explain the role of social marketing and health communication within the wider public health agenda:

“I entered the field of public health through my education and experience in marketing and communication. I wanted to transfer my background to addressing social and public health issues. Health communication and social marketing is relatively new when compared to other public health areas. The American public health association included health communication within its auspices only within the last 20 years… and a document called “healthy people 2010″ developed in the early 1990′s to guide public health policies in the US included health communication on its agenda for the first time…With the release of healthy people 2020, the focus is now on getting Americans access to information in an equitable way as well as in access to accurate and timely health information

“A textbook definition for health communication is: The art and technique of informing, influencing, and motivating individual, institutional, and public audiences about important health issues. Similarly, social marketing applies the rules and principles of traditional marketing to achieve specific behavioral (or social) goals

“Essentially, many of what we do is an attempt to either change high risk behaviors (as in the case of HIV and STDs) or get people to adopt healthy or prosocial behaviors

“People who work within this fields so a range of things. many focus on designing public health campaigns for television, radio, print, the internet, etc

“My interest in communication includes the use of mass media (radio, tv, internet) to promote healthy behaviors…but I am also interested in what’s called “health information seeking behaviors” and that is how, what, when, why etc people seek out health information and how we can use that knowledge to advance prevention messages and interventions

“For example, a lot of research in this country is done on information seeking as it relates to cancer. Not much is known about HIV/STD information-seeking behavior. This is a major barrier if you are trying to do a communication-based project addressing HIV and the like

“There is another angle to health communication with active research and practice: patient-provider communication. This area deals directly with the medical professions in that much of the research takes place in medical settings and seek to address how those professionals interact with their patients.”

I realize now that my answer only touched the tip of the iceberg for the field…

Posted on in Uncategorized

EPA to study air quality near HOVENSA on St. Croix

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has installed air monitoring equipment in three areas near HOVENSA oil refinery on St, Croix. This is in response to community concerns about the health impacts of chemical releases into the air.

Image courtesy of caribbeanbusinesspr.com

According to the full article, the study “will provide information to EPA and local residents on whether air quality near the monitoring locations poses health concerns and to guide the strategies for reducing local air pollution. EPA will use the information gathered in the study to help determine next steps, which could include additional monitoring or enforcement actions where appropriate. The goal is to protect public health by preventing exposure to pollution from the facility.”

The article goes on to say that “once monitoring is complete, the results from all of the locations will be analyzed to evaluate the potential for health concerns related to long-term exposure to these pollutants. The preliminary monitoring data is expected to be made public by late spring and a final report should be completed by the summer.”

The full article is available here http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/us_virgin_islands_news/238984.html

Posted on in Uncategorized

Tuesday Deadline Caribbean HIV Conference Abstracts

Abstracts for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference are coming dues Tuesday, February 15th. This years’ theme is Strengthening Evidence to Achieve Sustainable Action. The conference takes place from November 11-21 in The Bahamas.

According to the website, the conference is expected to attract 2,000–2,500 participants and will highlight scientific research findings, implementation lessons learned, skills-building tools, and networking opportunities.

There are five conference tracks within which participants can locate their research: Special Populations, Legal, Ethical, Cultural, Spiritual, and Leadership Issues, Epidemiology, Basic Science and Vaccine Research,  Treatment, Care, and Support, Prevention: Social, Behavioral, and Biomedical Change.

Full information on the conference and each track can be found on their website https://www.2011caribbeanhivconference.org