CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — 142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Applied Public Health Statistics

Healthography: How Where you Live Affects Your Health and Well-being

Submission Deadline: Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Applied Public Health Statistics Section (previously "Statistics Section") invites you to submit individual abstracts, groups of abstracts (Special Interest Sessions), and student abstracts (Student Paper Session) for the 142th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in New Orleans, LA. You don't need to be a member of our section, or a professional statistician, to submit a paper of interest through the Applied Public Health Statistics Section. However, if your abstract is accepted, you will be required to register for the conference. We are expanding our call for papers to reflect the broad interests among our members and session attendees at the meeting. Thus, in addition to our usual interest in statistical methodology papers, we would also like to invite papers that use advanced statistical methods (e.g., beyond widely used multiple regression) to address research or policy questions in all areas of public health. We also remain interested in new information systems and database methodologies and applications for collecting, storing, mining and analyzing large public health survey, administrative, and medical databases. This list of topics may undergo modification between now and the Annual Meeting. So even if your research does not fit neatly into one of them, simply submit it under the heading "General topics in applied public health statistics". In addition to the above, we are interested in (1) how statistics is used (or was used) to help develop and implement important public health interventions, or (2) show close teamwork between statisticians and other public health professionals. For further information or to submit suggestions for the program (which are always welcome) contact Dr. Melody Goodman by phone (314) 362-1183 or email (goodmamm@wustl.edu), or Dr. Brisa Sanchez by phone (734)-763-2451 or email (brisa@umich.edu).

 

Individual Abstract Submissions

Submit individual abstracts according to the on-line instructions. (Non-students need submit only an abstract; enter "N/A" where a summary is requested.) We will judge the abstract on your clarity of presentation, originality, methodology and contribution to the field of statistics. The highest rated abstracts, based on blinded peer review, are generally selected and placed in sessions according to the overall program plan. Oral presentations at contributed sessions are usually fifteen minutes in length. Presenters at poster sessions should display their work and be available to answer questions throughout their scheduled 90-minute session. We will take your preference for oral versus poster presentation into consideration, but the Program Committee considers every abstract for both oral and poster presentation. You should submit material only if you are committed to presenting the paper or poster personally, or will find a substitute who will register, attend the meeting and present your paper or poster.

Student Research Session & Competition

The Applied Public Health Statistics Section is also accepting abstract submissions for student research poster and oral presentation sessions. Students wishing to be considered for these sessions should submit online an abstract and a 2-page summary of their paper. In order to be eligible for the student competition you must be a student at the conference in November 2014 (those graduating in May/June 2014 are not eligible).  When submitting your abstract, please submit it under the session "Student oral presentations" or "Student poster presentations", even if it may be thematically related to other topics on the topic list.  Students interested in competing in the student paper competition should contact Trent Lalonde (trent.lalonde@unco.edu). Your two-page summary of the paper should be e-mailed to Trent (trent.lalonde@unco.edu) with copy to Melody Goodman goodmanm@wustl.edu, along with a letter from a faculty member attesting to the author's student status.  If a student abstract was submitted for oral presentation but is not accepted as an oral presentation, it will automatically be considered as a poster. All accepted student abstracts will be considered for the Student Research Competition. An award will be given for the Best Student Oral Presentation. 

Special Interest Session Proposals

The Applied Public Health Statistics Section also invites the submission of proposals for special interest sessions pertinent to the theme of the 142th Annual Meeting. You should submit individual abstracts for a Special Interest Session according to the on-line instructions. If you would like to organize such a session, please send a description of your proposal to Melody Goodman (goodmanm@wustl.edu) or Brisa Sanchez (brisa@umich.edu), if possible, in advance of submitting your abstracts. Once it is approved, we'll create a session slot for you that will appear in the final sessions list, and ultimately, in the Meeting Program. In your proposal, please include

  1. Organizer's full mailing address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers;
  2. session title;
  3. brief (1-2 pages) overview describing the purpose, relevance and importance of the proposed session;
  4. topics and participants, including the proposed moderators or discussants, titles of each presentation, full names of all authors, with full names of presenters underlined (as in the on-line abstract);
  5. time schedule within the session (begin the session at 0:00 hrs and end it at 1:30).

A presentation at a Special Interest Session may be up to 30 minutes in length.

Review of Special Interest Sessions

All Special Interest Session proposals and abstracts will be peer reviewed. All abstracts will be evaluated on their individual merits; acceptance of a Special Interest Session does not guarantee that all abstracts submitted for that session will be accepted, or that they can all be scheduled together. Unless instructed otherwise, the Program Committee will automatically consider the individual abstracts from any rejected Special Interest Session for presentation in Contributed Abstract sessions.

Joint Sessions

If you are submitting an abstract that is linked with other abstracts in a joint session, submit the abstract on-line, but also notify Melody Goodman (goodmanm@wustl.edu) or Brisa Sanchez (brisa@umich.edu) of the group of abstracts to which yours belongs. 

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. 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 Credit, each presenter, panelist, discussant, and/or faculty must provide:

  1. an abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names;
  2. at least one MEASURABLE SINGLE objective (“to understand” or “to learn” are not measurable objectives and compound objectives are not acceptable). Use ONLY the following Measurable Action Verbs: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List.
  3. A signed Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form with a relevant qualification statement; Example of Acceptable Biographical Qualification Statement: (I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federally funded grants focusing on the epidemiology of drug abuse, HIV prevention and co-occurring mental and drug use disorders. Among my scientific interests has been the development of strategies for preventing HIV and STDs in out-of-treatment drug users.)
  4. All continuing education learning content must be of sound science or professional practice and serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills and professional competence of the health professional. Learning content should be evidence-based if available.

A list of over 30 areas will be provided online for you to choose from. You will be asked to choose at least one or up to 6 areas that your presentation will address. Thank you for your assistance in making your session credit worthy. Contact Annette Ferebee at annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education. For program questions, contact the program planner listed below.

Ready?

Program Planner Contact Information:

Brisa N. Sanchez, PhD
Department of Biostatistics
University of Michigan
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
Phone: 734-615-9051
brisa@umich.edu

and
Melody S. Goodman, PhD
Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery
Washington University School of Medicine
660 S. Euclid Avenue
Campus Box 8100
Saint Louis, MO 63110
Phone: 314-362-1183
Fax: 314-454-1020
goodmanm@wudosis.wustl.edu