Dear Injury Colleagues,

Several ICEHS members presented their injury work at the World Federation/World Congress on Public Health in Istanbul, Turkey a few weeks ago. Initiating injury presentations at this conference was an important step in our continuing efforts to raise awareness of the global burden of injury. Assisting with our efforts to advance a global injury prevention agenda were ICEHS members Rebecca Spicer, Ted Miller, Bella Dinh-Zarr, Larry Cohen, and myself.

The global road safety panel organized by ICEHS member Bella Dinh-Zarr with moderation from APHA staff member Mighty Fine was well received. APHA member and leader Deborah Klein Walker moderated the panel organized by Larry Cohen and the Prevention Institute on Reducing Injuries and Violence through Community Action to Address Determinants of Health. Other sessions included reports by Ted Miller and colleagues on violence and substance abuse and alcohol. One of the major outcomes of the meeting was that our U.S. based ICEHS contingent, in conjunction with our international colleagues, initiated a dialogue on strengthening the presence of a global injury agenda within the framework of the World Federation/World Congress on Public Health. Members will be able to participate in our related online discussion later in the summer via of our ICEHS Web site based e-communities discussion forum.

Our communications committee is continuing to work very hard to strengthen and expand the content offered to members via of the ICEHS section on the APHA Web site located at http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/icehs/.

One of the important additions is a discussion board (accessed by selecting My Communities) to which members themselves may directly post comments. We have organized themes, mostly along ICEHS committee lines, but also containing other topics of interest such as transportation issues, injury disparities and global injury prevention. To view and post to this members-only section of the Web site, you will need your APHA member number and password. (If you do not know your members number and password, select member login on the upper right corner of the APHA main page and then forgot my member number and password. You should have it within minutes.) If you want to participate, you should subscribe to e-communities using the instructions listed on the My Communities section of the Web site. You can then view ongoing discussion, sign up for a committee, and post your own thoughts. We view this as a major breakthrough in the facilitation of collegial interaction on injury, violence and emergency health services issues. If you are not an ICEHS Section member, join today and sign up for e-mail alerts for additions to the discussion group(s) of your choice. Look forward to visiting with you on-line!

Best wishes,

Joyce Pressley, PhD, MPH

Chair, ICEHS