Medical Care Section invites abstracts that fit with the theme of the annual meeting, and with the Section's interest in advancing universal and equitable access to quality health care and health.

We welcome abstracts for oral or poster presentations that reflect good science and align broadly with interests and values of the Section.  After reviewers score abstracts, the program committee arranges highest ranking submissions into oral and poster sessions organized by topic. Interested students may choose to submit abstracts for the Student Paper Award Competition (as described below). While we try to honor preferences for oral, poster, or roundtable presentations, this is not always possible.

Although it is not current Section practice, we reserve the right to give preference to abstracts submitted by Medical Care Section members.

IMPORTANT NOTE: APHA allows all members to designate two sections as their APHA homes for free. If you are not yet a Medical Care Section member, please consider identifying Medical Care as one of your two APHA sections. As an added benefit, members receive free on-line access to Medical Care Journal.

CONTRIBUTED SESSIONS 

The following topics reflect both historical concerns and current focus areas of various committees within the Section. They are neither prescriptive nor exclusive. The Section's program planners may fashion new topics and combine or eliminate others according to the distribution and quantity of highly rated submissions. The Section supports and advocates for industry, education, government, and professional policies congruent with these interests.

• 1. Drug policy and pharmaceutical services
  Assessment of the public health perspective in the regulation and policy, utilization, cost and outcomes of medicines and pharmacy services, including: (1) medication utilization in children, the elderly and other vulnerable populations; (2) prices, patient copayments and access to medicines, (3) regulation of pharmaceuticals and public health, (4) pharmaceutical services and pharmacists as health care providers.
• 2. Health services research
  Abstracts can be either basic and applied research, and should examine the use, costs, quality, accessibility, delivery, organization, financing, behavioral or social factors, and/or outcomes of health care services to increase knowledge and understanding of the structure, processes, and effects of health services for individuals and/or populations.
• 3. Integrated care
  Including integration of all or a combination of primary, mental, behavioral, and pharmaceutical care, public health; medical homes.
• 4. Jail and prison health
  
• 5. Rural and frontier health
  Abstracts that describe promising programs to address disparities in rural areas are of particular interest. Abstracts that point to improved health outcomes for rural residents that are linked to (1) policy changes (such as required insurance payment for telehealth), (2) collaboration among public health and health care collaboration initiatives, and (3) the use of telehealth modalities to achieve the triple aim are highly desirable.
• 6. Veterans' health
  Research on Veterans that address cost-effective, evidence based programs and services, including special populations (i.e. homeless, criminal justice, substance abuse and mental health). Research on treatment approaches, evidence-based policies, and best practices designed for Veterans to promote recovery-oriented care and improvements in health outcomes are welcome.
• 7. Special, vulnerable, or underserved populations (other than rural; incarcerated; veterans)
  
• 8. History of public health
  

If you believe that your abstract fits well with others or a particular theme not otherwise mentioned above, please alert the Program Chair when you submit your abstract.

STUDENT AWARDS

Medical Care Section will select the five most highly rated student papers for presentation in an oral student session at the Annual Meeting and recognize the one judged as reflecting the best research and presentation. Like other abstracts, they should address topics of interest to the Section and designate themselves at submission for the “Student paper award.” Individuals who are chosen for the session will be asked to provide a letter from their advisor or institutional official of their student status at the time of submission.

INVITED SESSIONS

Individuals can also propose and organize entire sessions with multiple presenters. These invited (solicited) sessions are proposed and arranged at the initiative of individual organizers. The invited session process is competitive and slots are limited. Interested individuals are urged to seek a consultation with the Program Chair prior to submission to increase their chances of earning a session slot.

Medical Care Program Chair assists with solicited sessions only as needed and with a limited scope of tasks. It is the responsibility of the organizer to plan and develop the session, secure the presenters, and upload session details.

The official start of invited session submissions is April 6, when APHA accepts solicited abstracts. However, you are strongly encouraged to communicate to the Medical Care Program Chair your interest in organizing an invited session well ahead of this date. You should also inform individuals on your proposed panel to indicate on their abstracts your name as the organizer and that the submission is intended for an invited session. This information helps the Program Chair keep track of multiple abstracts that are ultimately meant for a single session.

We are particularly interested in invited sessions on the following topics, but are open to other timely and innovative possibilities:

• Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCCs) and self management of chronic conditions to empower and create "patient-centric systems" as well as to meet growing needs with limited resources
• Health problems caused by the medical care system (i.e., iatrogenic problems) include, among others, medication errors, the overprescription of pain killers and subsequent addiction issues, and hospital acquired infections
• Promising interventions (e.g., integrated care frameworks, evidence-based practices)

Individuals submitting abstracts to the Medical Care Section for consideration are advised of the following criteria:

• Abstracts should demonstrate their scientific quality and alignment with interests of the Medical Care Section.
• Work should have been carried out rather than just proposed or in progress. Abstracts not reporting accomplished efforts should be accompanied by an explanation of why this expectation may be inappropriate.
• Presenters at the Annual Meeting must be individual members of APHA.
• All presenters must register for the Annual Meeting. (For guest participants in solicited sessions, APHA has a very limited number of complimentary, one-day passes.)
• Abstracts may not be presented or published prior to the Annual Meeting.
• Abstracts submitted to the Medical Care Section should not be submitted to any other APHA section.

Medical Care and other sections, Special Primary Interest Groups (SPIGs), Forums, and Caucuses are planning some sessions jointly. Please share your ideas for cross- or multiple-group sessions and, if inclined, help plan them. Our proactive collaboration should result in broad appeal across APHA groups.

CONTINUING EDUCATION (CE) CREDIT

APHA values the ability to award continuing education credit to health professionals at its annual meetings. To do so, APHA needs the following information, requested when submitting abstracts, with every abstract. APHA awards credit for entire sessions rather than for individual presentations. For sessions to be eligible for CE credit, presenters must submit:

1) Abstracts free of trade and commercial product names;

2) At least one MEASURABLE objective per abstract using action words such as Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define, or List (please DO NOT USE “to understand” or “to learn” as they are unmeasurable); and

3) Signed Conflict of Interest (Financial Disclosure) forms with relevant Qualification Statements. (Please see an example of an acceptable Qualification Statement in a Disclosure form on the APHA web site.)

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Ready?

Program Planner Contact Information:

Özlem H. Ersin, MBA, MEd, PhD
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Manchester University College of Pharmacy
10627 Diebold Road
Fort Wayne, IN 46845
Phone: 260-470-2678
Fax: 260-470-4410
apha2015medicalcare@yahoo.com