Hungry? Options abound in the convention center and beyond

You’ve got your badge and have already thumbed through and marked the scientific sessions and events you want to attend.

But…what’s that noise? It’s like a persistent grumbling…

That’s your tummy — you forgot to figure out where to eat. We can help.

The area in and around the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center offers a range of food and entertainment options. You just have to decide what you want — and maybe go for a little walk.
If you want to stay inside, eating at the convention center is easy.

Just inside the main entrance in the North Lobby and open most days, you’ll find Outtakes Quick Cuisine, offering sandwiches, salads, pastries, coffee and bottled beverages. Outtakes also has daily hot specials.

For those staying in or attending sessions in the Westin Boston Waterfront, which adjoins the convention center, Starbucks in the lobby can satisfy your caffeine needs.

Looking for a hearty lunch? Wicked Good Market, located on Level 1 of the convention center, sells fresh sandwiches, Asian bowls, burritos, brick oven pizzas and specialty pastas. It also features a salad bar. The market is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day of the meeting.

Food stations throughout the convention center, including Wicket Good Market and Outtakes, offer gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and nut-free foods.

For those looking to venture a bit farther afield, the options are many and may afford the option to stretch your legs. Take a walk along Boston Harbor and you’ll pass a bunch of choices. Opposite the convention center along D Street, you’ll find LTK Bar and Kitchen (225 Northern Ave.) offering myriad seafood choices.

In the same neighborhood is Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grille (250 Northern Ave.) and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse (255 Northern Ave.), as well as many other options. A bit farther down Summer Street (turn left as you exit the convention center's main entrance) is another gaggle of restaurants, including French food at Menton (345 Congress St.) and Papagayo (283 Summer St.), which offers Mexican fare.

To find out about other options, check out this guide (PDF).

Your appetite sated, consider stopping by the Fort Point Channel District, which separates the convention center from downtown Boston. You might know it as the site of the Boston Tea Party, but today it features landmarks including the shops at South Station, Boston Children’s Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

So the options are many, and the meeting is five days long. Pace yourself and you may get to try a little of everything. Enjoy!

— C.T.

APHA Codeathon drives innovation for health

Better health will soon be many mouse clicks closer thanks to the APHA Codeathon, where public health experts mixed with developers, designers and entrepreneurs Friday. The two-day event, held in conjunction with APHA’s 141st Annual Meeting and Exposition, is drawing the expertise and energy of participants to develop technology solutions to help public health agencies implement the Affordable Care Act.

Gains made by the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Healthy Chicago initiative are testament to this type of collaboration. According to Health Commissioner Bechara Choucair, the city has lowered the rate of adult smoking to 18 percent — the lowest rate measured in the last two decades; added 35 miles of protected bike lanes in the last year-and-a-half; and increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables in food deserts while adding healthy snacks in vending machines.

“We couldn’t have done it without a lot of engagement with a lot of partners,” Choucair said, including the city’s civic tech community. Partners such as the Smart Chicago Collaborative created a venue for developers to interact with the city through regular open government and “hack” nights, where city officials and civic leaders work together to find technological solutions to city challenges.

In the same vein, APHA’s Codeathon seeks to foment collaboration around increasing access to preventive health benefits under the ACA.

Kenyon Crowley, associate director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems at the University of Maryland, was one of many to offer possible solutions: a language translation app that converts information such as protocols for cancer screening into audio files; an online dashboard that reports the range of preventive benefits accessed by a patient and those still available; or an on-demand ACA navigator.

APHA’s inaugural Codeathon, sponsored by APHA, Esri and the California Healthcare Foundation, wraps up today.

(Above: Bechara Choucair, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, touts health improvements spawned by collaboration between public health officials and the city’s civic technology community. Photo by Michele Late)

— D.F.

Hello, Boston!

Let's get public health-y! The 141st Annual Meeting has begun!

(Above from top to bottom: The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center - our home for the next five days; the Boston skyline and the registration desk in the convention center. Photos by Charlotte Tucker.)

APHA's Dr. Benjamin: Welcome to Boston!

Greetings APHA members, partners and friends,

It's my pleasure to welcome you to APHA's 141st Annual Meeting and Exposition! In the past year, APHA staff and members have been hard at work organizing another dynamic and vibrant Annual Meeting. It's never an easy task, but with this year's theme of "Think Global, Act Local," we presented meeting planners with quite the challenge: Seek out the world's best and most promising public health practices and bring them to Boston. This year, we wanted to follow the evidence — beyond borders, across oceans and from continent to continent — and explore how we can adapt these global public health success stories to serve our communities here at home. And I'm proud to say that when this year's meeting officially kicks off on Sunday, a world of public health will be waiting for you.

Speaking of adaptation, there's probably no better — or more urgent time — for public health to flex its adaptability muscles than now. As the Affordable Care Act continues to transform the health care landscape and as millions of Americans gain insurance coverage and access to preventive services, the role of public health is also shifting. Of course, some of our most traditional roles, such as monitoring environmental hazards or investigating disease outbreaks, remain the same. However, there is debate over how direct public health services, such as delivering vaccines or providing health screenings to low-income residents, fit into the new health care puzzle. On top of that, public health still struggles with uncertain, often declining funding levels as well as the overall public awareness of the role public health plays in our lives. These days can be difficult ones for the practice of public health.

But it's hardly all bad. The ACA's landmark Prevention and Public Health Fund and its Community Transformation Grants are rallying communities around chronic disease prevention like never before. New quality improvement opportunities, such as public health accreditation, are pushing agencies to improve efficiency, service delivery and ultimately, people's health. And a growing awareness that good health is intrinsically linked to social determinants such as education, income and geography is helping public health practitioners forge fresh and innovative partnerships and re-charge efforts to eliminate health disparities. Sessions on all of these topics and so much more will take place over the next few days here in Boston, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts as well as your stories from the trenches of local public health.

Every year at the meeting's Opening Session when I look out at the faces of thousands of public health workers, I'm instantly re-energized. It's an incredible reminder that public health truly is everywhere, in every corner of our communities, in every facet of our lives. Public health continues to make the world a better place and I look forward to celebrating those achievements — both big and small — alongside the people who make it happen.

See you in Boston!

Best (and healthy) wishes,

Georges Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E)

Executive Director

American Public Health Association

The social network

Sure, the APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition is known for its science. But there's much more to the world's largest public health gathering than PowerPoint presentations and data-driven discussions.

The Annual Meeting is also a time of celebration, socializing and, yes, having some fun. So here are just a few ways to get your public health party on.

• What's a party without prizes? Stop by APHA's Public Health Awards Reception and Ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center to celebrate the achievements of some the best and brightest in public health (and enjoy some tasty refreshments).

• Want to learn more about APHA's many membership groups and meet folks with similar public health interests? Then check out the many social gatherings and award ceremonies being hosted by APHA's Sections, Special Primary Interest Groups, Forums, Caucuses and the Student Assembly. For example, the Population, Reproductive and Sexual Health Section will host a Meet and Greet & Welcome Reception on Sunday night, the Black Caucus of Health Workers will host a Student Networking Reception on Monday night, and all are welcome to the Ethics SPIG's member meeting on Tuesday night. (There will be a listing of APHA membership group gatherings in the back of the Annual Meeting program that you'll receive in Boston.)

• Make some time in your scientific session schedule to browse the hundreds of booths at the Public Health Expo, a cornucopia of public health goodies and information. The expo, which will officially open its doors in the convention center on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 2 p.m., is pretty much the public health equivalent of the Mall of America. There'll be schools of public health, public health publishers, state and federal public health agencies, public health product makers, public health nonprofits and advocacy organizations, APHA membership groups and, of course, Everything APHA, where you can browse APHA publications, check out APHA CareerMart, pick up official Annual Meeting souvenirs and much more.

• If there's one tip this blogger has for an Annual Meeting newbie, it's this: Bring comfortable shoes. The APHA meeting is huge, both in content and square feet. Still, you're gonna need a rest, so grab a seat and meet a new friend at the Mix and Mingle Lounge, which will be located in the north lobby of the convention center. (Plus, free WiFi!)

• And for all you folks who'll be capturing your Annual Meeting good times via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other assorted cyberspace social clubs, RSVP for this year's APHA Social Media Meetup hosted by APHA's Social Media Team on Sunday night.

Of course, this year's Annual Meeting is in Boston — a huge, thriving metropolis with tons to keep you entertained after the last PowerPoint presentation of the day. For more on what to see, eat and enjoy in one of the nation's most historic cities, visit the City of Boston.

— K.K.

The password is public health

Ever wondered what would happen if a bunch of public health nerds and computer geeks spent two intense days together furiously developing ideas and writing code to make the nation a healthier, happier place? Well, we've wondered the same thing. 

That's why APHA is calling on programmers, developers, designers as well as public health professionals, advocates and aficionados to join a marathon session of brainstorming and coding for better health. APHA for ACA: A Codeathon to Help Implement the Affordable Care Act is a free, two-day event to bring together programming and public health experts with a goal of developing new apps, platforms and innovations that public health organizations can use to implement the ACA in their communities. The codeathon, which is sponsored by Esri and the California HealthCare Foundation, will begin on Friday, Nov. 1, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and conclude on Saturday, Nov. 2, when a panel of judges will award prizes to the best, most innovative solutions.

To kick off the codeathon, organizers will offer an overview of the ACA and the challenges to implementation, after which participants can begin networking, sharing ideas and forming teams. Ideas can run the gamut, from developing an app to connect people with local tobacco cessation services to creating a program to increase the uptake of critical preventive health services. It really is a "sky's the limit" kind of event — if your idea will help bring the benefits of the ACA to those most in need, we wanna hear about it. In fact, organizers hope the codeathon will result in ideas and tools that can eventually be brought to market. The codeathon is free and open to all, though registration is required.

After you've invented the next best app for health reform, head over to the new Social Media Lab in the convention center's Southwest Lobby (but first register for the Annual Meeting and then sign up for a time slot here). This year, APHA is teaming up with the folks from AIDS.gov — a leader in the social media world — to offer personalized sessions on how to use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to reach your public health goals. Participants will get a one-on-one session with social media experts from AIDS.gov or APHA and are encouraged to come to their appointments with some specific questions and ideas in mind. And feel free to stop by the Social Media Lab, which will be open to Annual Meeting registrants on Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., to pick up information, inquire about open time slots and join the social media discussion.

APHA not only talks the technology talk, it walks the walk. For the second year, you can download the free APHA Annual Meeting mobile app to your smartphone or tablet. The app lets users search the online meeting program, access session abstracts, peruse the Public Health Expo map, connect with fellow meeting attendees, sync up with APHA's personal scheduler and much more. To download the app, which you can find by searching for "APHA Meeting" in your app store, you must use the same email address you used to register for the Annual Meeting. (Annual Meeting registration is required to use the app.)

Finally, to meet other public health folks as excited about technology and social media as you are, RSVP for Sunday's Social Media Meetup hosted by APHA's Social Media Team.

How will you be using social media at the Boston meeting? Let us know in the comments below!

— K.K.

The ACA at APHA

It's been a big month for the Affordable Care Act.

On the plus side, millions of people are flocking to the Web to use new health insurance marketplaces, which means more Americans will soon have access to life-saving preventive care as well as protection from medical bankruptcy. That's a really big deal. On the not-so-plus side, some congressional lawmakers actually forced a government shutdown over implementation of the ACA, which means the fight for affordable health care is far from over. (Not to mention that the shutdown has meant the shuttering of essential public health services — and here's just one example of what happens when the doors to public health are closed.)

Right now, public health folks have a big role in collecting the data and telling the stories that illustrate the positive difference that the ACA is making and will make in people's lives. (And in true public health fashion, we also have a duty to point out its gaps and call for improvements.) The health reform law is transforming the health care landscape, and its landmark Prevention and Public Health Fund is already doing the same for community health.

So it's no surprise that the ACA will be a popular topic at this year's APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition. In fact, a quick search of the online program or a skim through our supplemental program guide to health reform sessions finds that if you have a passion for health reform, there will soon be no better place to be than the APHA Annual Meeting. Here are just a few of the ACA-related offerings you'll find in Boston:

• On Monday, Nov. 4, researchers will discuss the challenges of tobacco use prevention in an era of health reform.

• What the ACA means for people living with disabilities will be the focus of this presentation on Monday, Nov. 4.

• U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Howard Koh will present on Monday, Nov. 4, on a key social determinant of health — high school graduation — and the relationship to the ACA.

• This presentation on Tuesday, Nov. 5, will explore the effects of language barriers on enrollment in the ACA-driven Medicaid expansion and state-based health insurance exchange in California.

• Some people may be left out of the ACA's benefits, and this presentation on Tuesday, Nov. 5, will discuss one group at risk: farmworkers and their families.

• Also on Tuesday, Nov. 5, researchers will explore racial and ethnic disparities in the ACA's coverage.

• Two other Tuesday sessions include this one on "ACA navigators and assistors: Opportunities for public health" and this one on "Public health system transformation under the Affordable Care Act."

• And on Wednesday, Nov. 6, John Auerbach, former public health commissioner for Massachusetts, will discuss the role of state public health associations in implementing the ACA.

To start filling out your personal Annual Meeting schedule with ACA offerings, visit the online program or download the app and search for the Affordable Care Act. Or use our handy program guide to health reform sessions to point you in the right direction.

— K.K.

Students, prepare to get schooled

In the field of public health, you never stop learning. Indeed, one could say the public health professional is a perpetual student (but thankfully without the perpetual tuition). However, for the actual public health student — those of you still busy studying for your degree — there's no classroom quite like the APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition.

In addition to the hundreds of scientific sessions, social occasions, and networking and career opportunities planned for this year's meeting in Boston, APHA's very own Student Assembly has been busy creating events especially with the public health student in mind. This year marks the Assembly's 9th Annual National Student Meeting, which will take place a day before the Annual Meeting officially kicks off on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The student meeting, which has a theme of "Movin' and Groovin' All Around the World," will feature a variety of topics, including how to become a successful global health professional, the Affordable Care Act and its impact on young people, and how to survive graduate school. To learn more about the National Student Meeting and how to register, click here.

Beyond the National Student Meeting, the Student Assembly hosts a speed mentoring event, a welcome and orientation session, and an evening social mixer. The Assembly also organized a number of scientific sessions, such as "Student Topics in Best Practices Around the World" on Monday, Nov. 4, which will feature discussions about oral health, disparities and cultural competencies, and much more.

Of course, there's also the massive Public Health Expo, which hosts hundreds of booths, many of which may be of particular interest to students. There'll be more than 30 booths representing schools of public health, nearly 20 booths dedicated to health research as well as booths related to just about every discipline within public health, from occupational health and safety to minority health to nutrition. And, of course, don't forget to stop by the Everything APHA section of the Expo, which hosts APHA CareerMart, APHA Press and the Electronic Information Center.

Even if you're not coming to this year's Annual Meeting, there's still an opportunity to check out what you're missing. On the last day of the meeting, on Wednesday, Nov. 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health hosts a free Student Visit Day at the Public Health Expo to encourage young people to explore careers in public health. To register for the event, click here. 

For more on what the APHA Student Assembly has in store for Boston, visit the online program.

— K.K.