Congrats to another alum

The SCRHRC team would like to congratulate former team member Daniel Patterson, MPH, PhD on being named to the National Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council of the US Department of Transportation. And it all started back in South Carolina! Dr. Patterson is now an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. He also serves as director of research for the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania.

2010 AcademyHealth Final Thoughts

Good day blogosphere! Jordan here - giving some final thoughts to the AcademyHealth conference held this past week in the Cradle of Liberty, Boston. I, like Jeff, am in the PhD program in the Health Services Policy and Management department in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

The conference was filled with interesting sessions and had designated times for poster presentations and exhibits. The first day, I followed my main interest of Health IT and attended sessions that focused on that topic, however, the following days, I spread my wings and attended sessions dealing with primary care, prescription drugs, how to build an academic career, and palliative care.

I would be wide of the mark without mentioning a realization that Jeffery and I had dealing with the level of "geekdom" in which we had risen. Our last morning, (Tuesday) we found ourselves in a difficult predicament: at 8:00 AM, after dismantling and packing the posters to be shipped back to Columbia, we had not yet eaten breakfast and a session on hierarchical linear modeling was beginning. Thus we found ourselves in the uncommon position of deciding whether to eat now and risk missing past of the session, or going to the session and postponing our dietary needs. Like any good student of Dr. Probst, we chose the later. This ended up being a good decision, as this session truly did add to our statistical analysis knowledge and also adds to our "social gathering/small talk" repertoire.

In conclusion, the 2010 AcademyHealth conference, for me was a great experience. It offered an opportunity to see what my peers from other programs were researching, also it offered other networking opportunities with other professors and researchers. I look forward to next year's conference - to be held in Seattle.

Interesting presentations at Academy Health -- but...

Since Academy Health did not overlap with the annual meeting of the Association of University Programs of Health Administration this year, I [Jan] was able to attend more sessions than in previous years, and actually *pay attention,* versus worrying about missing something at the other conference. There were multiple excellent research method presentations.

Lee Mobley offered interesting remarks on geographic sampling, particularly the need for geographically based samples and geographic contiguity. While I'm not sure I'm 100% in agreement with all of her conclusions, her presentation was truly thought provoking, which is about the highest accolade one can offer. There were also excellent presentations on health disparities, long term care, and multiple other sessions attended by our SCRHRC staff.

But: Rural is *seriously* under-represented at an association that bills itself as a premier health policy and research group. One excellent presentation deal with reimbursement at skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The investigator, when asked after the presentation, was unaware that SNFs could be located within rural hospitals. Similarly, one of our posters addressed Board issues at critical access hospitals. When asked, only one person who stopped to glance at the poster knew what a critical access hospital is. I continued the experiment at a breakfast session on HSR, where I was seated at the policy table. No one around the table, which included representatives of two funders in addition to folks from major, urban universities, knew what a critical access hospital was, either.

"Yikes" is sort of an understatement about this. Right now, the existence of rural-specific health issues and policies seems to fall in the "don't know that we don't know" quadrant for AcademyHealth. Those of us concerned about rural communities should begin a campaign to establish a "rural" interest group.

SCRHRC at Academy Health

Following up on Jeff's comments: some photos of our team and their posters.

More Summer Conference fun

Hi all -- Jeff here. I'm a research associate for the Center and a PhD candidate in USC's health policy and management program. I'm in Boston with several of us from the Center, and we just finished Day 1 at Academy Health.

A number of us participated in the poster session. I think Dr. Probst wins the conference prize for having the most posters at the conference. She at least wins the prize for having the most from the Center.

The poster session went well. Despite a location by the restrooms, and not near the dessert table in the Exhibit Hall, I had some good conversations with a number of people about our poster "Oral Health in Rural SC: The Importance of the Relationship Between School Nurses and the Dental Community." Some appreciated the 8.5x11 versions of the posters. Some people just can't get enough of the trinket, even a paper one.

I enjoyed talking with the folks around me during the lulls in traffic at the poster session. There's a lot of interesting work in health services research. As a student, it's really gratifying to carry on discussions about research -- design, methods, etc. -- with more experienced researchers. Everyone I have met so far has been very willing to share their knowledge and experiences. As I start to think about dissertation topics, it's been great to hear their insights.

Fellow student staffers Jordan and Alexa (you'll be hearing from Jordan soon) concluded with the evening with dinner at PF Chang's. So good! Here is a photo of Jordan and Alexa eating tasty mini-desserts. A full day of networking and sessions is best ended with a little refined sugar.

More soon... ---Jeff

Notes from the NAC meeting in Charleston, SC

The SCRHRC was privileged to be able to attend (in the person of Jan Probst, Center Director) the meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, held in Charleston at the beginning of this week. This was Governor David Beasley’s last session as Chair after eight years of service, which made a meeting in his home state somewhat special.

Jan presented Center data on obesity among rural children, one of three topics being addressed by the Committee meeting. After Jan’s national data, Dr. Mike Byrd of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control presented on the epidemic-like spread of obesity. Dr. Francis Rushton, representing the SC American Academy of Pediatrics, described the clinical picture of childhood obesity – which can literally result in death, even during childhood.

On Tuesday, the Committee group charged with addressing childhood obesity visited Walterboro, SC to learn about a newly implemented community initiative. (See coverage in the local paper: http://www.ctdispatch.com/?p=6147]. The State Director for East Smart Move More South Carolina, Amy Splittgerber, presented an overview while local project Director Marilyn Peters and marketing consultant Rhonda Rawl provided the details about “Let’s Go Walterboro.”

Tuesday evening, Committee members were able to go to Folly Beach for an oyster roast and low country boil in honor of outgoing Chair, Governor Beasley. Actually, folks from outside SC likely thought “low country boil” referred to the weather. As can be seen from Gov. Beasley’s two-toned shirt, it was hot. But folks seemed to enjoy our great SC beach and everyone was delighted to present Gov. Beasley with a remembrance book featuring his history of service to rural people and places.

Congrats to SCRHRC Alum, Mike Mink

Dr. Mink's research on the nutritional content of foods advertised on TV is featured in Time:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1993220,00.html

and covered locally by WTOC in Augusta, GA:

http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3436885&nav=menu89_1_6

Mike was a research associate at the SCRHRC during his doctoral studies. Yay, Mike!!!