Health Services Research meetings & conferences

2012 Physician Assistant Education Association Annual Education Forum

November 7-11, 2012 Seattle, Washington

2012 Quetelet Seminar--Adult Mortality and Morbidity

December 5-7, 2012 Research Centre in Population and Societies, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Numerous demographic studies have been focusing on mortality and range from analysis of age-specific mortality to cause-of-death analysis or risks factors analysis. In countries with a long statistical tradition, mortality levels by sex, age and cause of death are easily obtained. Epidemiologists as well as demographers took interest in identifying risks factors and markers by age, sex and cause. Although these factors and markers remain the same for morbidities and the resulting mortality, little is known about morbidity levels, be it in terms of prevalence or incidence, except for pathologies that are recorded in specific registrars or for which large surveys are conducted. In countries with incomplete demographic data, both mortality and morbidity are little or badly documented except when subjected to specific surveys such as under-5 mortality or, to a lesser extent, morbidity. The need for medical diagnosis and assessment of severity of illness makes morbidity data collection especially challenging. Morbidity data collection is especially challenging as it involves. In addition, in armed conflict, post-conflict or natural disaster situations, evaluating the number of victims is crucial to assess needs as well as to ease the reconciliation process.

The 2012 Quetelet Seminar will focus on adult age morbidity and mortality analysis from the data collection and measurement perspective. It will be organised in collaboration with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (UCL-CRED/WHO) and International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH). Communications will cover existing or in-the-making tools for data collection and measurement that serve to estimate adult-age morbidity levels in countries with good-level statistical data and adult-age morbidity and mortality levels in countries with incomplete data. Particular attention will be devoted to papers that deal with estimating mortality and morbidity in crisis or post-crisis time.

The 2012 Quetelet Seminar will be organised along the following three axes:

1. Morbidity Analysis

What are the existing data collection and measurement tools to estimate incidence and prevalence of diseases, including chronic diseases? What are their limits?

What morbidity data collection and registration tools are most effective? What are the most reliable data to collect for the measurement of functional and cognitive abilities in a population so as to evaluate dependency ratios? What health monitoring systems should be developed to detect and prevent infectious disease?

2. Adult mortality in countries where data are incomplete

What are the latest developments in the estimation of adult mortality in countries where civil registration data are incomplete or non-existent? How has adult mortality changed recently in developing countries, more than three decades after the onset of the HIV epidemic and in a context of increased access to antiretroviral treatment? Beyond mortality levels, how are inequalities in adult mortality analysed (by sex, according to educational or poverty levels)? What are the lessons to be learned from demographic surveillance sites, particularly in terms of causes of death, as reflected by verbal autopsies and associated tools?

3. Demographic impacts of armed conflicts and natural disasters

What impact armed conflicts and natural disasters have on adult morbidity and mortality? How is this impact measured? What different forms of resilience develop and how are they captured? What early warning systems can be put in place to limit the impact of disasters?

International Society for Disease Surveillance Annual Conference

The ISDS Annual Conference is the premier event dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of biosurveillance. This year’s theme, Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance, will highlight the importance of working together across agencies, sectors, and disciplines to improve surveillance methods and population health outcomes. The conference will be held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA, December 4-5, 2012, with Pre-Conference Workshops on December 3rd.

The ISDS Conference draws professionals from a broad range of disciplines— epidemiology and computer science to mathematical modeling and health policy—to learn and contribute the latest achievements, methodologies, best practices, conceptual frameworks, and technical innovations in the rapidly evolving field of biosurveillance. This year's conference will provide fertile ground for cultivating new ideas and partnerships with roundtable discussions, panels and other opportunities to collaborate.

The scope of this conference includes all of the components, policies, methods, practices, infrastructure, research and evaluation related to timely surveillance of communicable diseases, chronic diseases and injuries. This includes notifiable conditions, adverse events and emerging/novel threats; biological, chemical, and radiological health threats; plant, animal, and food surveillance; and environmental monitoring.

DiversityRx 2013 Conference--the Eighth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations

Achieving Equity in an Era of Innovation and Health System Transformation

March 11-14, 2013, Oakland, California

New partnerships between health care organizations and communities, research into improved ways to deliver care, and changes in health care policy are opening up opportunities to achieve equity and the highest quality health care for culturally diverse populations. In this time of transition, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and advocates for health equity can focus attention on implementation, participation and improving health outcomes for individuals and communities. The 2013 conference will offer participants the opportunity to hear from experts and front-line leaders about how diverse populations are affected by:

state and national reform efforts
changes to the Medicaid program
innovative technology for information management and outreach
social determinants of health
other practice and financing developments.

As always, the conference will continue to feature both established and innovative cultural and linguistic competence and disparity reduction programs and policies from across the country and abroad.

Disability and the Majority World: The 2nd International Conference

Date: 26th- 27th September, 2012

Venue: Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

We are pleased to confirm that the 2nd international conference 'Disability and the Majority World' will be held at Manchester Metropolitan University. The conference seeks to bring together researchers, disability activists, practitioners, organisations, and others from various fields, to discuss a range of key and emerging themes around disability in the global South. It provides a much needed inter-disciplinary, critical, supportive and open space to debate, question and challenge, while exploring alternatives in a safe and friendly environment.

Registration

The conference is FREE of charge, but all delegates need to register. This will help us gauge attendance and make adequate preparations.

Cancellations: we would appreciate if those registered but no longer able to attend to please inform us by email Shaun Grech: S.Grech@mmu.ac.uk

Conference Programme

In the spirit of an eco-friendly conference, please note that we will be providing an e-pack instead of printed material on the day.

Meals

The conference is free, which means that lunch and refreshments will have to be purchased from the University or elsewhere. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements so we can make the refactory aware of delegate requirements.

Bursaries

We are afraid that despite the need, we are unable to provide bursaries (for travel, lodging or other expenses) to attend the conference.

12th World Congress on Stress, Trauma & Coping

February 19-24, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland

The 12th World Congress on Stress, Trauma and Coping is the premier forum for multidisciplinary exchange of ideas and information among those who provide crisis and disaster mental health services.

Sessions during the 12th World Congress have been designed to provoke critical thinking challenge current convention offer innovative ideas and insights & fully explore the many applications of critical incident response in various industries, settings and situations.

World Congress participants will identify the tools needed to solve current problems and explore the future direction of the crisis intervention field. The 6 day World Congress will include a variety of presentation formats ideally suited to exploring concepts, practical applications and results in sessions designed for professionals in all practice settings and experience levels.

World Congress Major Content Themes
Over 125 presenters will cover the spectrum of crisis intervention in these and other areas:

Research / Innovations Military Disaster Response Healthcare Settings Faith Based Applications Emergency Services, Public Safety Corporate / Industry / EAP Specialty Populations Team Development and Care Schools, Children

Who Should Attend

The ICISF 12th World Congress is a “must attend” experience for anyone working in the fields of crisis intervention, traumatic stress, emergency services & disaster mental health, including:

Disaster response personnel Psychiatrists Humanitarian aid workers Counselors Law-enforcement officers Social workers Firefighters Faith-based providers EMTs / Paramedics Employee representative organizations & Unions Military personnel First response support agencies Homeland security personnel Media correspondents / journalists Emergency service administrators Grief counselors Emergency operations administrators & managers Employee assistance professionals Corrections officials Commercial & industrial organization employees Healthcare professionals & administrators Airline & other transportation industry personnel Educators, school employees Communication officers & dispatch personnel Crisis workers Security professionals Suicidologists Victim's advocates Psychologists Risk managers

Why Attend?
The Crisis Intervention field continues to grow, building on excellent proven programs and strategies while incorporating innovations that meet the needs and challenges of the diverse populations we serve. As crisis interventionists we must learn from one another to continually improve the services provided to the level of best practices.

At the 12th World Congress, you'll have an incomparable opportunity to interact with experts in the field and hundreds of your peers from around the U.S. and world who, like you, are committed to providing assistance to those affected by critical incident stress. Choose from over 70 presentations that will explore how the practice of crisis intervention is evolving and adapting to meet the needs and challenges of the future.

Please address any questions to:

Shelley Cohen
World Congress Program Manager
scohen@icisf.org
(410) 750-9600

2012 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations

Thursday, October 18, 2012-Friday, October 19, 2012 Chicago, Illinois

The aim of this national conference is to identify issues, emphasize best practices, and highlight innovations by providing those who work with refugees and immigrants an opportunity to learn from and to network with one another.

Families of refugees and immigrants in the U.S. must do their best to manage transitions into new communities. Many of these families encounter financial hardship, difficulty in gaining employment, cultural adjustments, health and mental issues, intergenerational conflicts, and the stresses of unfamiliar school experiences.

Services for preschool and K-12 refugee and immigrant youth and their families may be compromised by differing perceptions and misunderstandings (by both the families and those who provide services) concerning the cultural adjustment process; health, health care, and nutrition; public education enrollment and assessment, academic roles and expectations, the provision of bilingual education services and special education services, when appropriate; and American education law requirements.

To address these and other refugee and immigrant issues, individuals and nonprofit organizations need access to resources on successful practices and processes as well as solutions for challenges in refugee and immigrant integration.

Efforts to help youth and families will have a better chance of succeeding if they are based on shared understandings and collaborative partnerships among families, schools, health and mental health providers. In particular, as delineated in federal Title III of No Child Left Behind legislation, linking educators and families together can provide positive academic experiences and successful integration of refugee and immigrant children into our society.

Organizations also need to build their capacity to assist families by gaining resources through grant writing, and assisting adults to become self-sufficient in this economy through employment services and innovative practices such as microenterprise.

2012 Refugee and Immigrant Conference Committee

The Center/Adult Learning Resource Center
Chicago Public Schools
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights
Heartland Health Outreach
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Illinois Department of Human Services
Illinois Department of Public Health
Illinois State Board of Education
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

World Congress Leadership Summit on Optimizing Oncology Management

August 2-3, 2012 Boston Massachusetts

The Annual World Congress Leadership Summit on Optimizing Oncology Management provides best practices and updates to the entire oncology industry, specially focusing on the payer and how they are to handle policy and program formation.

With the influx of oncology products in manufacturer pipelines and the rising cost of treatment, it is now more imperative than ever for plans to properly contain spending while providing the best possible quality of care. As more drugs and therapies start target similar molecular pathways, competition is bound to increase. This conference will help plans evaluate the jungle of treatments out there to pin point the best coverage for their members.

New for 2012:

What new developments are in the manufacturer pipelines and how to properly prepare for them
Case Studies of oncology benefit programs that enhance member experience and quality of life
Realize cost savings by comparing and analyzing current treatments to determine efficiency
Discuss how different future models of health care delivery will affect oncology treatment access
Learn what employers are concerned about in regards to oncology benefits for their employees

World Health Summit

The World Health Summit is one of the world’s foremost gatherings of leaders from academia, politics, industry and civil society to develop joint strategies and take action to address key challenges in medical research, global health and health care delivery with the aim of shaping the political, academic and social agendas. This year´s World Health Summit “Research for Health and Sustainable Development” will be held in Berlin from October 21st to 24th, 2012.

The M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centres and Medical Universities was officially founded in 2009, as a medical and scientific forum of excellence on the occasion of the 1st World Health Summit in Berlin. It is composed of a network of prestigious medical institutions dealing with scientific, political, and economic issues related to medicine and global health. The M8 Alliance acts as a permanent platform for framing future considerations of global medical development and health challenges. It is the M8’s vision to harness academic excellence to improve global health.

Summit’s main themes:

“Research for Health and Sustainable Development”

Educating Health Professionals
• Brain Drain in Medical Professions
• Educating Health Professionals for the 21st Century

Translating Research into Policy
• Integrating Research into Health Policies and Health Systems
• Minimizing Waste of Research
• Translating Genomic Research into Global Health Gains

Financing Health
• Economic Crisis and Health Impact
• Sustainable Health Systems Financing and Universal Coverage

Diseases of Modern Environments
• The Epidemic of Chronic Diseases
• The Future of Maternal and Reproductive Health
• Urban Development and Mental Health

Summit Organizer

K.I.T. Group GmbH
Association & Conference Management
Kurfürstendamm 71
10709 Berlin
Germany

Sophie Spangenberger
Organizing Manager
Tel.: +49 30 246 03 240
Fax: +49 30 246 03 200
sophie.spangenberger@worldhealthsummit.org

 2012 Prevention of Youth Substance Abuse in Rural Communities: Reaching Out to Missing Partners

August 1-3, 2012 University of South Carolina Lancaster in Lancaster, South Carolina

2012 Prevention of Youth Substance Abuse in Rural Communities: Reaching Out to Missing Partners is a training conference that emphasizes the unique challenges of conducting youth prevention in rural communities. The conference was founded by one of the most successful prevention coalitions in the country, in hopes of raising awareness of the plight that many rural communities face with regards to the growth of youth substance abuse.

Hosted by: USC Lancaster

This year’s conference is hosted by the University of South Carolina Lancaster in Lancaster, South Carolina. Historic Lancaster is located 30 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina.