Title: At 55 sessions, CHPPD sets record in New Orleans APHA

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Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development

Issue Date:

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This year we received more abstracts than in the last five years. We received approximately 580 completed abstracts. Almost 15 of them were transfered to other sections, mainly International Health. Since the meeting is in New Orleans we were able to add sessions, granted from APHA, largely because the convention hall is so large and has so many meetings spaces. Therefore we have a total of 55 sessions, the largest ever. Forty-five sessions are scientific and include two round table sessions; of these, 18 are invited sessions and 27 are contributed sessions. In addition, we have 10 poster sessions. However, this still means rejecting over 120 abstracts or about 20 percent of the submissions.

One exciting aspect of the submissions is the unusually large number of student abstracts received this year. In past years we usually had between 10-13 student submissions, whereas this year we received 55 student abstracts! Over half of these will be in scientific or poster sessions.

The abstracts continue to focus on methodology, including new GIS and Web-based methods, obesity and diabetes, the environment and its relation to asthma and childhood diseases, as well as prevention strategies for cardiovascular health and cancer screenings. The new areas to be presented are based on innovative uses of the bioterrorism funding to local health departments. Some have been used to develop infrastructure, while others were used for new community approaches to vaccinations, especially during the flu season.

The official APHA acceptance/rejection notices went out May 31, and the program is now available at <www.apha.org/meetings>.