CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — 139th APHA Annual Meeting
Theme: Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds & Bodies
Environment
Submission Deadline: Friday, February 11, 2011
The Environment Section is seeking abstracts and full session proposals for the 2011 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Exposition to be held October 29 - November 2, 2011, in Washington, DC. The 2011 Meeting marks the 100th Anniversary of the Environment Section and the program will highlight achievements in the environmental public health movement and acknowledge the work ahead. The theme of the 139th Annual Meeting and Expo is “Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds and Bodies.” Many environmental public health concerns can be addressed by developing and maintaining healthy communities.
DEADLINES:
Full “Invited” Session Proposals
Due: January 21, 2011
Successful Full Session Proposal Applicants Notified: February 4, 2011
Presenter’s abstracts for Accepted Full Sessions Proposals Due (uploaded on-line): April 22, 2011
Individual Abstracts
Due: February 11, 2011
Accept, Reject, or Waitlisted Assignments: June 1, 2011
Student Achievement Poster Award Abstracts
Due: February 11, 2011
Accepted Student Achievement Poster Award Abstracts Notified: April 2011
Student Achievement Poster Award Revised Abstracts Due: April 22, 2011
PRESENTER AND PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS:
Presenters
All persons making a presentation at the Annual Meeting & Exposition must pay a registration fee in order to participate in the program. All persons presenting an abstract must be an individual member of APHA during the time of the meeting. APHA does not pay an honoraria or expenses to any presenter.
Presentations
Presentations may NOT be submitted to multiple Sections, SPIGs, Caucuses or Forums and may be presented only one time during the Annual Meeting & Expo. The presentation may NOT be presented or published prior to the APHA Annual Meeting.
DESCRIPTIONS OF SESSION FORMATS:
Oral Session: 90 minute session with 3-5 presentations, each 15–25 minutes in length.
Poster Session: Sets of 10 posters organized and presented together within a 60 minute session
Roundtable Session: 90 minute session with a set of “round tables” where each table has a different speaker. Participants rotate from table to table to participate in different discussions. NOTE: Audiovisual equipment (e.g., computer, LCD projector, etc.) is not available during roundtable sessions.
Panel Discussion: 90 minute session comprised of 4-5 panelists discussing a specific topic or set of closely related topics.
DESCRIPTIONS OF SESSION TYPES:
Research Presentations
Abstracts describing scientific research projects should focus on new knowledge of environmental public health issues. The abstract and presentation should include the purpose of the study, a hypothesis or study question, detailed methods and results, and specific conclusions.
Policy or Program Presentations
Policy or program abstracts should describe the application of knowledge to real-world problems or policies. Many times these types of abstracts are referred to as public health in practice. The abstract and presentation should include a problem statement and conclusions describing resolution of the problem. Strong preference will be given to abstracts that include systematic assessment of the policy or program, with detailed description of methods and findings.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
The Environment Section encourages you to submit Abstracts and Full Session proposals describing research studies, innovative policies, or programs that address an environmental public health problem. While abstracts reflecting any innovative work highlighting environmental public health will be reviewed, the Section will place emphasis on abstracts related to the following topics:
- Built Environment and Healthy Places
(e.g., indoor air, healthy homes, relationships between health and urban infrastructure, transportation, urbanization, sewer/water infrastructure) - Chemicals and Public Health
(e.g., persistent bioaccumulative toxins, endocrine disruptors, chemical risk assessment, chemical policy reform, “green” chemistry & green products – including “green-washing”) - Children's Environmental Health
(e.g., environmental risks at home and at school, environmental health risks with disproportionate impacts on children, disparate impacts of exposure) - Clean Air and Water
(e.g., pharmaceuticals in drinking water, pollution, waterborne disease, tertiary water purification systems, microbial risk assessment, vulnerabilities in exposure) - Climate Change
(e.g., climate change prediction, policy change, adaptation to climate change, disparate impacts of climate change) - Ecosystems and Human Health
(e.g., emerging infectious disease and environment, sustainable use of land, resources or energy, interactions between ecosystems and human health, natural disasters, dying oceans, toxic exposure in subsistence fishing communities) - Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
(e.g., influence of social, economic, or cultural factors on environmental health risks; exposure, impact, or policy inequities; access to environmental resources) - Food and the Environment
(e.g., food contamination in production or distribution, environmental impacts of the current food system, sustainable food production and water, food and farm policy, food justice) - Global Environmental Health
(e.g., international environmental health, transboundary pollution and waste, impacts of global economy, clean drinking water) - Science to Support Decision-Making and Policies
(e.g., biomonitoring, environmental health tracking, health impact assessment, energy use, cumulative risk assessment) - Student Achievement Poster Award Track
(submit abstract for consideration for the Environment Section’s Student Achievement Poster Award) - Support for Local Environmental Health
(e.g., infrastructure, disparities in infrastructure, fostering leadership, workforce development, unregulated water systems, climate change adaptation)
FULL "INVITED" SESSION PROPOSALS
Deadline January 21, 2011
Proposals for Full Sessions are welcome. Full Sessions are comprised of invited speakers who will address different aspects of the same topic of high interest. A variety of formats are acceptable including oral sessions, roundtables, and panel discussions.
Note: The 2011 Annual Meeting & Expo marks the 100th Anniversary of the Environment Section of the American Public Health Association. The Section is planning events and sessions to highlight achievements in environmental public health in the past 100 years. We invite full session proposals which capture the changes that have taken place in environmental public health over that time and look forward to upcoming challenges in the field. However, it is not necessary that your session proposal incorporate a retrospective component.
To submit a proposal, you must:
Note: To facilitate the full session proposal process, we have scheduled a webinar style conference call for January 6th at 12:00pm (noon) EST. This call will present an overview of the submission process and discuss details necessary for session organizers. Please mark your calendars. If you are interested in participating please complete the survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VDDX8NM. Additional details and slides will be distributed prior to the call.
All Full Session Proposals will be peer-reviewed and ranked for quality, topic applicability, adherence to Full Session Proposal Form requirements, and relation to overall Section priorities. Please review the Evaluation Criteria (below). The Program Planning committee will make extra efforts to fill Sessions that relate to the APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition theme.
Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposal by February 4, 2011. If a Full Session Proposal is accepted, submitter(s) will then be directed to enter the individual abstracts comprising the Full Session online during the APHA window for “invited” abstract submissions, March 25 – April 22.
If the Full Session Proposal is not accepted, the Environment Section encourages submission of the individual abstracts by February 11, 2011.
INDIVIDUAL ABSTRACT CONTRIBUTIONS
Deadline February 11, 2011(uploaded by 11:59pm PST)
Proposals for individual abstracts are welcome. Program Planners will combine accepted individual abstracts into 90 minute sessions (4-5 individual abstracts of 10-20 minute oral presentations) or sets of poster presentations. Please state your preferred format: oral presentation or poster presentation or either option.
All abstracts will be peer-reviewed and ranked for quality, topic applicability, adherence to abstract requirements, and relation to overall Section priorities. Please review the Evaluation Criteria (below). Every effort will be made to accommodate the author’s presentation preference for accepted abstracts (e.g., oral presentation or poster). However, the Environment Section may not be able to accommodate all presentation preferences.
To submit your abstract, you must:
Note: The word limit has been increased to 300 words this year (up from 250 words in previous years). The program planning committee would like to encourage this be used to present substantive results in the abstract.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT POSTER AWARD TRACK
Deadline February 11, 2011(uploaded by 11:59pm PST)
Students of programs in environmental health, public health, and other related fields are encouraged to submit abstracts pertaining to their academic research. Interested students should submit their abstract online via APHA’s Website; abstracts should be submitted into the Environment Section’s “Student Achievement Poster Award Track.” Please note that abstracts submitted into other topic related tracks will not be considered for the award.
Students must submit an abstract including a well thought out study purpose and detailed methods (300 words or less). Submitted abstracts will be reviewed for relevance to environmental public health and the student’s clarity in describing the work that will be or has been done. While it is understood results may not be available by the February 11, 2011, abstract submission deadline, it is expected that final student posters will include details about the study purpose, methods, results and specific conclusions.
Up to ten abstracts will be selected for poster presentation during the Environment Section’s Student Achievement Poster Award Session. During the poster session, students and their posters will be judged for presentation style, knowledge of the subject matter, and project quality. Up to three finalists will be honored at the Environment Section’s Social Hour.
Eligibility requirements:
- Work must have been completed by the student as part of an environmental health, public health, or other health related degree program.
- A student must be enrolled for enough credit hours during fall semester 2011 to be considered in good standing as at least a part-time student, or have graduated from their program between May-August 2011. If the abstract is accepted for presentation, proof of student status will be requested.
- The student must be the first and presenting author on their contributed abstract.
- To be eligible for an award the student must present the work at the APHA meeting and attend the Environment Section Social Hour.
- Students that have received an award in previous years are not eligible to resubmit unless they are working on a different degree.
Student Travel Awards
A limited number of student travel awards are available. It is not necessary to submit an abstract to be eligible for a travel award; however, extra consideration will be given to students who submit an abstract abd are actively involved in the APHA Environment Section. For information about travel awards, contact Rebecca Tave Gluskin at rtg230@nyu.edu.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Both Individual Abstracts and "Full" Session Proposals will be evaluated by the same criteria. The criteria are broad to allow for the evaluation of science, policy, and public health practice proposals. They are: 1) Importance to environmental health; 2) Originality of work; 3) Defined objectives/purpose; 4) Sound methodology/philosophy; 5) Reasonable conclusions; and 6) Overall reviewer enthusiasm.
In addition to this evaluation criteria, Program Planners will pay special interest to abstracts that cover the 2010 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo theme, “Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds and Bodies."
CRAFTING LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Please note that learning objectives are required for each submitted abstract. Applicants are encouraged to list at least one MEASURABLE objective (see below). Learning objectives should be written from the vantage point of the participant; what applicable knowledge will the participant learn from the presentation. Guidance and information about appropriate learning objectives can be found at: http://apha.confex.com/apha/learningobjectives.htm.
Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators and those certified in public health at its Annual Meeting & Expo. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so members can claim credit for attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education (CE) credit, each presenter must provide:
Thank you for your assistance in making your abstract credit worthy. Contact Annette Ferebee at: annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education credit. Contact the Program Planners for all other questions.
HEROES & MILESTONES IN ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLC HEALTH VIDEOS
Interested in making a video?
For the 100th anniversary of the Environment Section, the section is organizing a session to emphasize achievements in Environmental Public Health. This session will be comprised of short 3-5 minute videos which highlight achievements of individuals and/or organizations and events in environmental public health movement. If you are interested in producing a video on a hero and/or milestone in environmental public health please email: apha_env_video@yahoo.com and you will receive further information on this session and a Call for Videos by January 31, 2011.
Program Planner Contact Information:
Rosemarie G. Ramos, PhD
UPMC Montefiore NW 9
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
3459 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412-692-2139
Fax: 412-605-1999
apha.environment@yahoo.com
and
Jyotsna Jagai, MS, MPH, PhD
Office of Research and Development, Environmental Public Health Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
104 Mason Farm Rd
MD 58A
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
Phone: 919-966-6209
apha.environment@yahoo.com