Title: Chiropractic Health Care Section Scores Big at 2002 Annual Meeting
Author:
Section/SPIG: Chiropractic Health Care
Issue Date:
The 2002 APHA Annual Meeting will be a tough one to beat for the Chiropractic Health Care Section! A grant from APHA’s Inter-Sectional Council facilitated collaboration at the 2002 Annual Meeting between the Chiropractic Health Care Section (CHC), the Podiatric Health Section, The Vision Care Section and the Oral Health Section. Together, these four sections combined forces to offer a “Mega Health Booth” wherein attendees could get free health screenings related to each section. The Oral Health Section conducted oral health screenings, the podiatrists examined feet, the Vision Care Section offered vision and macular degeneration screenings and the CHC Section did osteoporosis screenings and body mass index assessment, both combined with health promotion information. The booth won 2nd prize in competition with more than 900 booths and displays and was truly the ‘talk of the town.' It was wonderful experience to see so much public health ACTION taking place at a booth designed and implemented by the CHC! The great news is that this booth collaboration will continue again this year! (See article entitled “Mega 2” elsewhere in this issue.)
Beyond the exhibit hall, collaboration also occurred in an unprecedented way. Several of the scientific sessions that included chiropractic were collaborative sessions with contributions from the Vision Care and Podiatry sections. This collaboration not only broadened our audience, but created an atmosphere of interdisciplinary dialogue that was truly enriching. This collaboration was largely due to the hard work of our 2002 program planner, Dr. Monica Smith; effort that really showed in the quality and depth of the sessions. This coming year, Dr. Smith has again outdone herself with a stellar collaborative program, and an invited theme session on the topic of Healthy Aging. (Please see program description in this newsletter.)
It was a big year as well for chiropractors in APHA, with two chiropractic publications in the prestigious American Journal of Public Health. Congratulations to Dr. Eric Hurwitz and Dr. Monica Smith, the lead authors on those outstanding publications. Such scholarly work in a widely read inter-professional publication lays the foundation for future positive dialogue between chiropractors and other health professionals and health advocates.
2002 was an awesome year for the CHC, and this year promises to be outstanding as well, when the Annual Meeting convenes in San Francisco this November. With so many chiropractors practicing in California, we hope to see record numbers of DCs turn out for this event. Our 2002 Chairperson, Dr. Tom Carpenter, and I extend our personal invitation to all California DCs to join us at APHA 2003. We look forward to seeing all of you in San Francisco!
Lisa Z. Killinger, DC
Chair Elect; CHC