Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #119703

Douglas Shenson, MD, MPH, SPARC (Sickness Prevention Achieved through Regional Collaboration), 76 Prince Street, Newton, MA 02465, 617 796 7966, dshenson@earthlink.net

Preventive services such as adult immunizations and chronic disease screening are potentially life-saving measures for older adults. However, these Medicare-covered services are not reaching many older adults. In fact, it has been shown that a two-year old girl is four times more likely to be “up-to-date” on her preventive services than her 65-year old grandmother.

While immunizations and chronic disease screening ultimately have a clinical component, there is much that you can do as a public health professional to ensure these essential services reach older adults. Dr. Shenson, a physician with noted expertise in public health prevention measures, will describe the innovative, evidence-based model known as SPARC (or “Sickness Prevention Achieved through Regional Collaboration”) that has shown considerable success in broadening the use of preventive services. A public-private partnership serving seniors in a four-county area of New England, SPARC catalyzes and coordinates the efforts of a variety of community players to facilitate the delivery of vaccinations and cancer or cardiovascular screenings with their associated follow-up services. Dr. Shenson will describe the reasons behind SPARC's success, its vital role as a centralized locus for communication and accountability, and its network of interactive partners, including local health departments, aging and social service organizations, hospitals, visiting nurses associations, consumers, health care practitioners, and local governments.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Describe 3 characteristics of clinical preventive services.
• Specify the current clinical preventive service “up-to-date” rate for older adults in the United States.
• Identify 2 structural impediments to the population-wide delivery of clinical preventive services.
• Describe 3 community-based opportunities to deliver clinical preventive services to elders.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.