What are the "unmentionables" in healthcare and technology? A public health doctor weighs in from this week's Health 2.0 conference.
For four hours, Bill Hall used to lie on a padded vinyl recliner, one arm stretched out, two thick needles sticking out of it. One needle drained the blood from his body. The other put it back.
Think about this: More than 200,000 West Virginians have contracted a disease that kills people. About 69,000 of them don't know they have it.
In the past few years, Long Beach, Calif. has undergone changes to reduce traffic, increase pedestrian safety and promote bicycle use among residents. Damien Newton continues a series on the city's efforts to transform itself into a more livable community.
Low prices, availability and aggressive targeted marketing are all factors that ensure children and teenagers are eating more fast food than ever before. The Network for a Healthy California is pushing for outdoor advertising that encourages healthier choices. This is part one in a four-part series.
Part two: Committed to nutrition
Patricia Erwin is program manager for Newcomers Health Program, a clinic-based, community health program serving refugees and immigrants in San Francisco since the late 1970s. Newcomers Health Program is run by the San Francisco Department of Public Health in collaboration with the International Institute of San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital's Refugee Medical Clinic, Bay Area Community Resources and Ocean Park Health Center. Health services are provided via community collaborations and a range of clinic- and community-based programs.
Pam Flood is director of operations for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, an Oakland-based organization working to improve access to health care and eliminate health disparities by advocating for public policies and resources to address the health needs of communities of color. Flood has more than 14 years of nonprofit fund-raising and administration experience. Pam has worked for such organizations as Haymarket People's Fund, the Black Coalition on AIDS, Women's Educational Media, Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services, and the Tides Foundation.
Guenet Sebsibe is the field supervisor for the Infectious Disease and Epidemiology/Biostatistics programs at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Previously, she was program manager of cultural and linguistics services for the Alameda Alliance for Health, a nonprofit health plan established in 1996 to provide health care services to more than 94,500 Alameda County residents. The health plan offers most written materials in English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese and offers free interpreter services in exam rooms and over the phone. The alliance prefers that patients do not use family or friends to interpret, emphasizing that a family member or friend's most important job is not to serve as an interpreter.
Carmen Burgos is program manager for the Kern Health Consumer Center (KHCC), a service agency that helps low-income residents of Kern County navigate the health care system. KHCC is a project of Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, a nonprofit organization offering free legal services in civil matters to low-income residents of Kern County. KHCC is a part of the Health Consumer Alliance, a united effort of nine legal services agencies to address the health access problems of California consumers, particuarly low-income consumers.
