SPH News August 7, 2006
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SPH News is a School-wide electronic newsletter distributed every other Monday during the school year and every month during the summer. Please send news items to SPHNews@umn.edu. Whenever possible, please use SPH News in place of School-wide e-mails.
The submission deadline for the September 5 back-to-school issue is noon on Friday, September 1.
From the Dean (top)
New Directions in Public Health Education
The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) has embarked on a major effort to reform and re-frame public health professional and graduate training. In a nutshell, public health education is moving to a "competency-based" model that will include a national examination to certify graduates' learning. The exam is expected to be offered for the first time in 2008, and it will emphasize the core areas of public health: biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, management and administration, and social and behavioral science. Yet to be decided is whether "cross-cutting" competencies will also be included in 2008, or in a later exam. You can read the ASPH report and recommendations here: https://www.myu.umn.edu/metadot/index.pl?id=552693.
Why this effort? A "big picture" view places the project as part of the trend toward better professionalization of public health and the health professions in general. That means greater accountability for education programs including assuring their quality and continuous improvement. There are four key elements to this:
Accreditation -- assures that SPHs have the required trained faculty, "infrastructure" and institutional commitment in place to offer public health professional and academic degrees and certificates. SPHs must be re-accredited every 5-7 years. Our own SPH is up for re-accreditation and a site visit in Spring 2007.
Competencies -- are the specific capabilities (e.g., problem solving, field skills, methods, tools, knowledge) that faculty expect of a public health professional at a basic or advanced level.
Certification -- or "credentialing", if you prefer, are means of assuring graduates' performance standards at level through an examination process.
Continuing Professional Education -- or life-long learning, if you prefer, assures that public health professionals remain accountable by improving their knowledge and skills.
This is a work in progress just now, so there is uncertainty in future directions this may take. For example, while the public health practice community has partnered with ASPH on this project, will local, state and national employers of our graduates encourage or require credentialing and evidence of continuing education in their public health professionals? How will this process change the way we SPH faculty develop, implement, coordinate, and evaluate core teaching? Will this evolve from "basic" certification of core competencies to "advanced" certification of competencies (similar to medicine)? And how will this affect "interprofessional learning"?
I am grateful to all the Minnesota faculty that have been front-and-center in this effort at each stage. I know their leadership will continue as we move into initial implementation. As incoming chair of the ASPH Deans Education Committee, I will be there too.
--John R. Finnegan, Jr., Ph.D.
Faculty News (top)
George Maldonado has been elected as the SPH representative to the Academic Health Center’s Faculty Consultative Committee. The committee discusses issues of importance to faculty and has a member from each AHC school or college.
The deadline for 2006-7 documentation for promotion or tenure is Monday, September 18. Please forward the original plus 20 copies to the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee, c/o Judy Peterson, Dean’s Office, SPH, room A308 Mayo. If you have any questions, please contact Judy Peterson (peter042@umn.edu, 4-7196) or Marsha Reinking (reink001@umn.edu, 6-1428).
Media News (top)
July 2006 media coverage featured the following SPH faculty and staff:
Henry Blackburn
Roger Feldman
John Finnegan
Aaron Folsom
Bernard Harlow
John Himes
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer
Michael Osterholm
Emily Parker
Mark Pereira
Mary Story
Coverage was featured in local media as well as in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and on MSNBC.com, CBC News, eMaxHealth.com, and Forbes.com. Visit the SPH Web site at http://www.sph.umn.edu/news/ to read more about SPH faculty in the news and find links to the complete stories, or e-mail SPHNews@umn.edu to request hard copies of the stories.
Featured Link: To read a recent Star Tribune editorial on the SPH’s work in India, go to http://www.startribune.com/561/story/594269.html.
School News (top)
Transforming the University of Minnesota: What Does it Mean for Minnesota's Environment? will take place Wednesday, August 16, 8:30-noon at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Saint Paul. The Minnesota Environmental Initiative will hold a policy forum to discuss the implications of the new college and the Institute on the Environment for stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Following a presentation by University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks, a panel of stakeholders representing University, non-profit and government perspectives will discuss the implications on the public and private sectors of integrating the College of Natural Resources, College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Food Science, and Nutrition to form CFANS and the Institute on the Environment. SPH professor Deborah Swackhamer, co-director, Water Resources Center, will be a panelist. For more information, go to http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/events.html.
Larissa Minicucci is the new Veterinary Public Health program director, overseeing the dual DVM/MPH program. Minicucci obtained a BS in animal science from Penn State University and a DVM at Cornell University. During a public health residency/fellowship at the University of Minnesota, she earned an MPH in epidemiology. She recently completed a two-year assignment at the CDC as an epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer. Minicucci can be reached at 4-3685 or minic001@umn.edu. Will Hueston continues to provide his expertise to Veterinary Public Health as part of the executive faculty team for the Public Health Practice program.
Moving Toward Sustainable Energy Systems: Exploring Global Pathways to a Common Destination will take place October 24-25 at the Humphrey Center. The event is free and open to the public. Keynote speaker is RK Pachauri, chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and director-general, The Energy Research Institute (TERI). Seating is limited, so early registration is recommended. Online registration is available at http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/stpp/global_climate_econdvlp.html. For more information, please contact Sophia Abbott, 6-1593; albot002@umn.edu.
A new date of Tuesday, October 3 has been set for the SPH Community Partners annual event. Atum Azzahir, president and executive director, Powderhorn/Phillips Cultural Wellness Center, will deliver the keynote address that evening. Watch SPH News for more details. In the meantime, if you have questions about the event, contact Michelle Lian-Anderson at liana001@umn.edu.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society announces funding opportunities. Health Care Delivery and Policy Research Contracts: Financial modeling of multiple sclerosis medical care: $300,000-$400,000 (total amount for all years of the study, not per year) for up to 2 years (plus 10 percent indirect costs). Develop and evaluate comprehensive quality indicators for MS medical care: $300,000-$450,000 (total amount for all years of the study, not per year) for up to 3 years (plus 10 percent indirect costs). Investigators wishing to apply for either of these programs must submit a two-page letter-of-intent by September 29. A copy of the Request for Proposals can be obtained by visiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Web site: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/pdf/research/RFP.pdf.
Carole Rudra, postdoctoral fellow, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, will lead an EpiCH Faculty Candidate Seminar on Thursday, August 10, 2:30-3:30 p.m. in WBOB room 142. Her presentation will be Ambient Air Pollution Exposures Before and During Pregnancy in Relation to Preeclampsia Risk. For more information, contact Joni Lemieux at lemieux_j@epi.umn.edu.
(Ruby) Hong-Ngoc Nguyen, postdoctoral fellow, Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, will lead an EpiCH Faculty Candidate Seminar on Tuesday, August 15, 1-2 p.m. in WBOB room 142. Her presentation will be Toward a Better Understanding of Men’s Roles in Studying Women’s Time to Pregnancy. For more information, contact Joni Lemieux at lemieux_j@epi.umn.edu.
SPH Day at the Minnesota State Fair is Thursday, August 24. Stop by the SPH booth in the UofM building on Dan Patch Avenue. Take part in the following activities:
- 9 a.m. – Noon : DNA Spooling with faculty and students from EnHS
- Noon – 3 p.m: Healthy Habits Quiz with staff from the Take ACTION study, EpiCH
- 3 p.m. – 6 p.m: The Environment and your Health with faculty, staff, and students from EnHS
- 6 p.m. – 9 p.m: Body Image Distortion with staff from the New Moves Study, EpiCH
Get the latest news from SPH students around the world. Students are blogging about their international field experiences this summer. To read the entries, go to http://blog.lib.umn.edu/sphpod/fieldnotes/.
The Academic Warm-Up book discussion will take place Monday, August 28
11:30 – 1 p.m. in Mayo D327. Read one or both books to discuss urban public health:
• Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
• Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America
by Laurie Kaye Abraham
Discount at U bookstore:
http://www.bookstore.umn.edu/shopping/publichealth.html
Participants who order online will receive a 20 percent discount. The Coffman bookstore is also displaying these titles with a 20 percent discount. For more information on the book discussion, contact Joan Pasiuk at pasiu001@umn.edu.
New Training Resources from CPHEO
The following items will be available September 1:
• Contact Investigation and Special Populations Skill Development Guide
• Competency Mapping Guide
• Protecting Our Food System from Intentional Attack Training Module:
http://cpheo.sph.umn.edu/cpheo/umncphp/foodsystem.html
Available Now
Mass Dispensing Online Training Modules:
www.umncphp.umn.edu/massdisp
To order these guides or CD-versions of the online modules, contact CPHEO at cpheo@umn.edu . To find out about upcoming CPHEO courses, see the calendar of events below. Or, to see a more detailed listing of courses, go to www.publichealthplanet.org. Register for courses at http://ustar.ahc.umn.edu/register_event.cfm.
Calendar of Events (top)
Event listings are available at the SPH Web site at http://www.sph.umn.edu/news/events/home.html and the AHC site at http://www.ahc.umn.edu/calendar/.
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SPH News is sent by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, 420 Delaware Street, S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455. www.sph.umn.edu.
Last modified on Monday Aug 07, 2006