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 Medical Care 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. Please, take a minute to review Medical Care Section Committees and use key words to identify in your abstract a Committee of your preference.

• Drug Policy and Pharmaceutical Services
  The Drug Policy and Pharmaceutical Services committee aims to enhance the public health perspective in regulation, economics, outcomes research, and policy of pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services. We focus on improving rational access to quality and affordable pharmaceuticals across US public health programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, etc.) and commercial health insurance plans.

  Contact: Enrique Seoane Enrique.seoane@mcphs.edu

• Health Economics
  The Health Economics Committee welcomes any research studies related with the applications of economics to health and health care. The topics of interest include allocation of health care resources with respect to demand and supply of health care; the roles of hospitals, physicians, and health insurance; reimbursement mechanisms and its effects on health care cost and outcomes and market imperfections and the role of the government in the economics of health care.

  Contact: Jessica Williams jessica.allia.williams@gmail.com

• Health Equity
  The Health Equity Committee welcomes research abstracts on studies of health disparities and inequities among vulnerable populations such as racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and others. We are especially interested in studies of interventions to improve health equity.

  Contact: Lisa Lines llines@rti.org

• Health Services Research
  The Health Services Research Committee welcomes studies assessing how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies and personal behaviors affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and ultimately our health and well-being

  Contact: Katherine S. Virgo kvirgo@emory.edu

• Justice and Incarcerated Health Committee
  The Justice-impacted and Incarcerated Committee is dedicated to advancing the multiple public health areas intersecting with the justice system, including correctional health and healthcare, transitional care for reentry, access to community healthcare, mental health and substance use treatment, among the justice involved toward improving health and reducing disparities among special and vulnerable populations. The committee strives to build a multi-disciplinary approach to address the health and socio-economic impact of mass incarceration on individuals, families and communities.

  Contact: Alison Jordan ajordan@nychhc.org

  
  

• Rural and Frontier Health
  The Rural and Frontier Health Committee is committed to make a difference in rural communities addressing health disparities that are tied to rural challenges such as transportation, walkability, access to care, and poverty, increasing understanding of health disparities and cultural aspects of rural life that factor into policy challenges such as emphasis on self-reliance and higher levels of religiosity.

  Contact: Cody Mullen cody.mullen@gmail.com

• Veterans' Health
  The Veterans’ Health Committee is the forum to share your ground-breaking research and innovative practice in Veterans’ Health. We invite research, policy and practice perspectives aiming at improving Veterans’ Health. We welcome abstracts addressing cost-effective, evidence- based programs and policies, and best practices designed for Veterans to promote recovery-oriented care, and improvements in health outcomes.

  Contact: This committee is seeking a new leader!

  Interim contact: Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio rmonguio@schoolph.umass.edu

If you believe that your abstract fits well with the Medical Care Committees listed above or a particular theme not otherwise mentioned above, please use key words to identify that particular theme 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 Medical Care Section and designate themselves at submission for the Student Paper Award.  Outstanding awardees of oral contributions will be invited to submit a manuscript to the Medical Care Journal. Full peer-review will determine acceptance of these papers.

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 (Opens: 4/10/2017; Closes: 4/28/2017)

Individuals can also propose and organize entire sessions with four to five presenters. These invited (solicited) sessions are proposed and arranged at the initiative of individual organizers. It is the responsibility of the organizer to plan and develop the session, secure the presenters, and upload session details. The invited session process is competitive and slots are limited. Interested individuals are urged to seek a consultation with Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio, PhD, MA. Program Chair, at rmonguio@schoolph.umass.edu prior to submission to increase their chances of earning a session slot.

However, you are strongly encouraged to communicate to the Medical Care Program Chair your interest in organizing an invited session ahead of time. 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.

The official start of invited session submissions is April 10, 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.

• 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:

Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio, PhD, MS
Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health and Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
715 North Pleasant Street
322 Arnold House
Amherst, MA 01003
Phone: 413-545-4603
rmonguio@schoolph.umass.edu

and
Jim Wohlleb, MA, MS
APHA Medical Care Section
1018 N Arthur
Little Rock, AR 72207-6302
Phone: (501) 680-9244
Fax: (501) 664-1961
wohllebjamesc@aristotle.net

and
Wassim Tarraf
Institute of Gerontology and Department of Healthcare Sciences
Wayne State University
87 East Ferry Street
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 3136642632
wassim.tarraf@wayne.edu