Title: News, Views and Web Sites
Author:
Section/SPIG: Health Administration
Issue Date:
This section is intended to help you with news and Web sites that you can use in your work.
What's New(s) on...?
This section links you to Web sites that have information useful to those working in health administration. To visit the site, just click on the underlined link. Valuable resources all. These links will remain as part of the Newsletter. Keep in mind that some of the links might take a few seconds to load as they are doing searches of very large databases – and that takes time.
What's New on the APHA Web Site? <http://www.apha.org/news/>
What’s New on the AHRQ Web Site? <http://www.ahrq.gov/whatsnew.htm>
What’s New on the DHHS Web Site? DHHS Reference Collection? <http://www.dhhs.gov/news/press/2004.html> <http://www.dhhs.gov/reference/index.shtml>
What’s New in Medicine and Public Health on the National Academy Press Web Site? <http://books.nap.edu/v3/makepage.phtml?val1=subject&val2=ms>
What’s New at the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™? <http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/whatsnew/newthisweek.aspx>
What's New on the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Web Site? <http://www.jcaho.org/news+room/index.htm>
What’s New in the Grey Literature? (New York Academy of Medicine) <http://www.nyam.org/library/glrv5n1.shtml>
What's New in Health Administration on the Yahoo! Web Site? <http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Health_Administration/>
What's New in PubMed on Organization and Administration in Public Health? <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=PureSearch&db=PubMed&details_term=(("organization and administration"[MAJR] AND "public health"[MESH]) AND ("English"[Language] AND 2004[dp]>
(Please note: If the long URLs do not work when you click them, be sure to copy all lines adjacent to one another into the address line of your browser).
Medicare Drug Benefit Calculator
"This calculator allows users to enter their prescription drug costs to determine what they would pay under the Medicare reform proposal currently being considered in Congress." <http://www.kaisernetwork.org/static/kncalc.cfm>
How to make a silk purse from a sow's ear
How to make a silk purse from a sow's ear--a comprehensive review of strategies to optimise data for corrupt managers and incompetent clinicians. David Pitches, Amanda Burls, and Anne Fry-Smith, BMJ 2003;327 1436-1439.
<http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7429/1436>
We all need a little humor in our lives, and although not intended to be humorous, this article does a great job of describing with tongue in cheek a number of creative accounting practices such as: gaming of non-clinical performance data, fraudulent reimbursement claims, and gaming of clinical data. The context is British. So is the humor.
APHA Policy Development and Review Process
APHA kicked off its 2004 Policy Development and Review Process in January. We have provided you with a link to information about how you can become more involved in policymaking at the Association. This information covers both the policy development process as well as the recently adopted policy review process which was created to identify outdated APHA policy for archiving and also to identify gaps in APHA policy. We strongly encourage you to work with the leadership of your Section, Affiliate or SPIG to get engaged in this important process.
Two key dates to keep in mind this year are: January 12 - suggestions for subject areas in need of review are due.
February 13 - proposed new policies are due.
Please visit the APHA Web site at <http://www.apha.org/private/ppolicy.htm> to view this year's policy development guidelines which contains a calendar of important dates and deadlines for each step of the policy development and review process. You will need your username and password for the "Members Only" section of the APHA Web site to view this information. If you have any questions, please e-mail us at <policy@apha.org>.
Ingrid Davis, Chair, Action Board
Harry Perlstadt, Chair, Science Board
Cheryl Easley, Chair, Education Board
CDC Futures Agenda
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would like to hear from you as they determine its agenda for the 21st century. As part of its strategic planning process to determine this agenda, they have set up a Web site <http://www.cdc.gov/futures>, and are encouraging folks to suggest priorities and areas of focus. This is your opportunity to tell CDC what you feel is important. You can provide this input by going to the Web site and clicking on the "Contact Us"
item on the menu in the left-hand column on the page.
Preventing Chronic Disease [New Journal from CDC]
CDC has launched a peer-reviewed electronic journal focused on prevention, screening, surveillance and population-based programs that address chronic disease, the agency announced. Located at: <http://www.cdc.gov/pcd>.
Unveiled Dec. 15, Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy (PCD) will be targeted primarily to researchers in chronic disease prevention and intervention, as well as health professionals who deal with chronic conditions and population health.
The first issue of PCD (available online at <http://www.cdc.gov/pcd>) includes a video about tobacco control programs and articles about nutrition, dementia surveillance, osteoporosis, population-based interventions for communities of color, diabetes prevention, law, school health, and community-based research and partnerships. Contributors include David L. Katz of Yale, who writes a regular health column for 0 Magazine, and S. Leonard Syme, emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley.
National Healthcare Quality Report
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides information on a variety of topics related to health care quality. "The National Healthcare Quality Report, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the first national comprehensive effort to measure the quality of health care in America. The report includes a broad set of perfomance measures that can serve as baseline views of the quality of health care. The report presents data on the quality of services for seven clinical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and respiratory disease. It also includes data on maternal and child health, nursing home and home health care, and patient safety." Find the report summary at: <http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqr03/nhqrsum03.htm>.
The full report is available from <http://qualitytools.ahrq.gov/qualityreport/download_report.aspx>.
National Healthcare Disparities Report
"The National Healthcare Disparities Report, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is the first national comprehensive effort to measure differences in access and use of health care services by various populations. The report includes a broad set of perfomance measures that can serve as baseline views of differences in the use of services. The report presents data on differences in the use of services, access to health care, and impressions of quality for seven clinical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and respiratory disease as well as data on maternal and child health, nursing home and home health care, and patient safety. It also examines differences in use of services by priority populations. Find the summary report at: <http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr03/nhdrsum03.htm>.
The full report is available from <http://qualitytools.ahrq.gov/disparitiesreport/download_report.aspx>.
CDC Public Health Law News
Public Health Law News is a free electronic newsletter published every weekday except holidays by CDC's Public Health Law Program. The newsletter contains summaries of news reports on public health law and related subjects; announcements of public health law--related publications, conferences, congressional hearings, and other events; a news quotation of the day; and other timely material. The newsletter is available at <http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/od/phlp>. Information about subscribing via e-mail is available at <http://www.cdc.gov/subscribe.html>.
Drowsy Driving (AAA)
Most of us would admit that we have driven while tired. We also know that this is a dangerous thing to do. The AAA (American Automobile Association) Foundation for Traffic Safety provides us with information about drowsy driving and "falling asleep at the wheel," including danger signals, the risk factors implicated in drowsy driving crashes, a drowsy driving quiz, audio clips, and comments from drivers who have been in drowsy driving crashes at this Web site. Pick up an informative brochure about sleep and driving titled, "Wake Up!" And don't drive when you are tired. The URL is: <http://www.aaafoundation.org/projects/index.cfm?button=drowsy> .