A little birdie told me so: Tweet of the Day

Today's tweet of the day from those using the hashtag #apha10 goes out to Opening Session speaker Dr. Cornel West from Twitter user LaNotoriousMLE: @CornelWest I have so much to examine. Thanks for speaking out on the importance of public discourse and public good.

Tweet of the Day bonus: Dr. Cornel West himself tweeted using the APHA hashtag. @CornelWest: Blessed and humbled...

The inside scoop

Need a Denver Broncos jersey, wild huckleberry jam, Rocky Mountain postcards or a quick bike ride?

The space just outside the Colorado Convention Center has some nice spots for sightseeing, grabbing a bite or taking a break from indoor meetings to enjoy this week’s fabulous local weather.

You might have seen the racks of red bikes that are part of the city’s B-Cycle program. For a $5 membership fee, you can ride free for 30 minutes or less or take a loaner out for two hours for a mere $6.60. There are check-in stations at the corner of the convention center at 14th and Champa and also 15th Street and Tremont. I don’t think the folks with APHA's Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section will be happy to learn helmets aren’t included, but you can pick one up at Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, 1.5 miles from the convention center at 1611 Platte St.

Along 16th Street, the pedestrian mall offers everything from fast food chains to gourmet candy to Denver-specific souvenirs and some amazing people-watching. Check out the Wild West of America Souvenir Market at 715 16th St. for personalized tins of sugar-free mints, rock-shaped candy and Colorado T-shirts, sweatshirts and postcards. Sportsfan at 912 16th St. has Nuggets, Broncos and Rockies gear galore, but I wonder why they have a Tennessee Vols flag in the window.

Hungry? Five local restaurants will donate 10 percent of your bill to the Colorado Public Health Association when you show your APHA badge:

1515 Restaurant – 1515 Market St.
FreshCraft – 1530 Blake St.
Boney's BBQ – 1555 Champa St., Ste C
Rack and Rye – 1320 15th St.
Gumbo's – 1530 16th St.

And if you need a breath of fresh air and maybe a little peace and quiet away from the bustle of the meeting, the 10-mile Cherry Creek Trail is just a few blocks behind the convention center off Speer Boulevard. It’ll also be the site of the Physical Activity SPIG 5k Fun Run/Walk on Tuesday morning. But at dawn today, there was no one about but some ducks, a handful of joggers and one guy on inline skates.

Got any tips for your fellow APHAers? Let us here 'em in the comments below.

Above, a view of 16th Street just a few blocks from the Colorado Convention Center and, hey, wanna take a bike ride? Photos by Donya Currie

Rocky Mountain high

This blogger is starting to have flashbacks to the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting in San Diego, where the waterfront view from the convention center was so tantalizing it was a bit hard to concentrate on everything going on inside. But, like 2008, I'll try my best to pay attention....

Above, a view of the Rocky Mountains from the Colorado Convention Center parking garage. Photo by Donya Currie

Public health students take our questions

Ask a few public health students attending APHA's Annual Meeting about the most daunting challenges facing them as they enter the field, and the answers range from figuring out how to explain what public health is to conducting research that makes a lasting difference to tackling ever-increasing rates of chronic disease.

“People don’t really seem to take public health seriously,” said Brittany Marshall, an MPH student at the University of South Florida and APHA Student Assembly Student Meeting director.

She said a key challenge is “letting people know public health is important, and letting them know why.”

Public health doctoral candidate Charles Rogers, a graduate research assistant at the Texas A&M University Center for the Study of Health Disparities, said he doesn’t want to be a researcher who simply “parachutes in” to study an issue and leaves after the data is collected.

“I really want whatever we do to make a difference,” he said. “I want to be part of that new group of people who are really about change.”

Eric Roseen is a fourth-year chiropractic student in Oregon who already tries to counsel patients on healthy lifestyle changes but wonders how to make a dent in the overwhelming tide of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and the like.

“I think chronic disease is one of the biggest killers," he said. "Probably the biggest challenge is to find something that is effective” at reducing the rates of such killers.

“I think it’s important to recognize that health doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” said MPH student Elaine Ruscetta, who’s studying at Columbia University. “When somebody’s sick, it’s not just that they don’t feel well. They can’t make money. And then if you have a population that is that way, the whole population is unable to provide for themselves.”

Not to mention the sticky wicket of health disparities that exists not only between countries, communities and racial and ethnic minorities, but also between, say, a 26-year-old University of Minnesota MPH student like Krystal Rampalli and someone her age with no education and a minimum-wage job.

Rampalli said a formidable public health challenge is convincing individuals to quit smoking, eat more produce and make other changes that will affect more than one life.

“Failing to realize that small actions contribute to larger trends — I think that’s a big challenge to public health,” she said.

— D.C.

Get this party started

APHA's state and regional public health Affiliates always throw the best parties.

Above, attendees and award winners at the annual Committee on Affiliates reception, which was held Saturday night in the Colorado Convention Center. Photo by Jim Ezell/EZ Event Photography

Sunday's Have You Heard

And justice for all: Don't miss this year's Opening Session, from noon to 2 p.m. in the Colorado Convention Center's Wells Fargo Theater, with social justice speakers Dr. Cornel West, American philosopher and civil rights activist, and Dr. Bill Jenkins, who helped end the infamous Tuskegee experiment. Plus, hear welcoming remarks from APHA's own Dr. Georges Benjamin as well as from local public health folks. Not in Denver with us? Visit APHA's YouTube channel later for highlights from the 2010 Opening Session.

Expo!: The grand opening of this year's Public Health Exposition takes place right after the Opening Session at 2 p.m. in the convention center's Exhibit Halls A/B. Hundreds of public health booths will be rolling out the welcome mat for you, including the Everything APHA booth, which will be located in the center of the Expo and is the go-to place for...well, everything APHA. The aptly named booth is also the perfect place to pick up a souvenir from this year's meeting.

Dazed and confused?: Don't worry, we know how you feel. There's so much going on at APHA's Annual Meetings, it's hard to know where to begin. But we're here to help. Check out "Orientation to the APHA Annual Meeting and Membership" on Sunday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in room 605 of the Colorado Convention Center. The session was created for first-time meeting attendees and members, but all are welcome.

Book 'em: Like to read? So do we. Stop by the APHA PubMart booth, #1348, for the newest public health titles as well as updated editions of public health standards. And get info on opportunities to meet public health authors and get your book signed during this year's Annual Meeting. Book signings kick off with Vincent DeMarco and Michael Pertschuk, authors of "The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will Into Political Power." The signing takes place Sunday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the PubMart booth.

Better days ahead

It's not a comparison I expected to hear at today's APHA Summit on Health Reform, but I think it's my favorite (and a nice way to round out our summit coverage). When talking about the work to improve quality in care, APHA member Carolyn Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, said a colleague once compared the efforts to 6-year-olds playing soccer: No one's really sure what's going on and they're kinda confused about where the goal is. The best thing about 6-year-olds playing soccer? "They all get better," Clancy said.

Here's to hoping things get better.

— K.K.

Above, from left to right, summit closing session speakers Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Carolyn Clancy, AHRQ director, and Mary Wakefield, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration. Photo by Kim Krisberg

The fresh faces of public health

How do today’s public health students become tomorrow’s public health leaders?

“It’s not as simple as just taking the reins from our predecessors,” University of Colorado MPH student L. Kendall Krause, MD, told the 200 students gathered for today’s National Student Meeting, which is organized by APHA's Student Assembly. “Continually, gaps exist between what is and what could be. I challenge you all to step away from the status quo and be innovative and take risks. You must actively seek out opportunities for progress.”

And don’t forget to keep your eyes and ears open.

“As you go throughout your day, you’ve got to be learning,” said keynote speaker Lon Kieffer, a motivational speaker and health professional. “You cannot be so in love with your own opinion that you fail to take things in.”

A panel offering guidance on how to run a successful public health campaign touched not only on practical steps (research on your target audience beforehand, and reach out to celebrities, community groups and other partners) but also encouraged students to keep the fire alive.

“I was infected early with the social justice disease,” joked Amy Hagopian, PhD, of the University of Washington School of Public Health and a long-time public health advocate.

To be effective, whether advocating against war or cigarette marketing or for better health care or access to produce, “pick some issues that really are important to you and resonate with you and follow those across your career,” Hagopian said.

Cute kids don’t hurt either, said T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH, of the Make Roads Safe Campaign for Global Road Safety. Posters of Vietnamese schoolchildren wearing helmets helped encourage actress Michelle Yeoh of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fame get active in the safe roads campaign. And the helmet safety project resulted in an incredible increase — from 3 percent to 90 percent — in helmet use in the Vietnam capital.

And in the face of ever-shrinking budgets and sometimes seemingly insurmountable public health problems, “keep showing up,” said Heather Kennedy, MPH, who helped a group of Colorado seventh-graders successfully advocate for a city ordinance requiring stores to stop putting tobacco products on countertops near candy and other kid-enticing products.

“Be persistent," she said. "People will know who you are.”

— D.C.

Above, It’s fun to be a public health advocate! From left, panelist T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, of Make Roads Safe, APHA Student Assembly Action Committee Co-Chair Kristi Stone-Garza, and panelist Sharon Rudy, director of the Public Health Institute’s Global Health Fellows Program. Photo by Donya Currie