The 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 the interests and values of the Section.  After reviewers score abstracts, the program committee arranges the highest-ranking submissions into oral and poster sessions organized by topic. While we try to honor preferences for oral, poster, or roundtable presentations, this is not always possible. We reserve the right to give preference to abstracts submitted by Medical Care Section members when selecting highly scored submissions.

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 the Medical Care Journal and to the Medical Care Blog (http://www.themedicalcareblog.com/).

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 number of highly scored submissions. Please, take a minute to review the themes below and use key words to identify in your abstract a theme of your preference.

Please, add key words at the end of your abstract that, to the extent possible, align with the themes described below.

The themes reflect the interest of multiple subcommittees within the section. For a full list of section committees, please see the Medical Care Section website (https://www.apha.org/apha-communities/member-sections/medical-care/who-we-are/committees).

• Health Equity (HE)
  The Health Equity theme welcomes research abstracts on studies of health disparities and inequities, and interventions to address these injustices, among vulnerable populations such as racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, asylees and refugees, the LGBTQ community, and others.

  The health equity theme also welcomes abstracts related to research, policy and practice perspectives aiming at improving Veterans’ Health. Abstracts for studies’ addressing health disparities in rural and frontier communities are also encouraged. Additionally, this theme also seeks abstracts that address the health and socio-economic impact of mass incarceration on individuals, families and communities.

• Health Services Research (HSR)
  This theme welcomes abstracts that are relevant for health services research, health economics, including drug policy and pharmaceutical services. Abstracts of studies that assess how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes (such as comparing treatment alternatives), geography (e.g., rurality), health technologies and personal behaviors and clinical practice affect outcomes including access to health care, the quality and cost of health care services and pharmaceuticals are welcome.

  Other topics of interest include the roles of hospitals, physicians, and health insurance; reimbursement mechanisms and their effects on health care cost, and patient level outcomes and economic evaluation studies including cost-effectiveness analysis and outcomes evaluation.

  Additionally, we welcome studies that aim to enhance the public health perspective on the regulation, economics, utilization, outcomes, safety, and policy of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical services. We encourage submissions addressing access to quality affordable and cost-effective pharmaceuticals (Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, national health care systems, incarcerated populations, etc.) and commercial health insured populations.

Calling all Students!  Are you conducting research related to Health Services, Health Economics, Pharmaceutical Economics and Outcomes Research, Health Equity, Rural Health, or other Research pertinent to Medical Care on a Hot Topic?  Submit Your Paper to the Medical Care Section Student Paper Competition!

Typically, the Medical Care Section’s Student Papers Awards Committee selects four or five of the most highly rated student papers for presentation in an oral student session at the Annual Meeting.  To be competitive, abstracts should address original research conducted by the student on timely topics that fall within areas of interest to the Medical Care section as listed above. Abstracts should  include short background indicating the niche in the literature filled by the research, data sources and methods, results and implications for clinical or policy audiences. When submitted, the abstract should indicate in the comments field that it has been submitted for the “Student Paper Competition”. Only original not published papers will be considered for the Student Paper Award. Finalists may be selected to publish in the Medical Care Journal.

A letter from the student’s advisor is required verifying that the paper was primarily written while the individual was a student and also confirming that funding is available for the student to attend the conference if his/her paper is selected for presentation. Abstracts will be submitted online through the APHA system and recommendation letters from advisors emailed to Dr. Wassim Tarraf at: wassim.tarraf@wayne.edu. Please put "MC Student Paper Award Competition" and your last name in the email subject. Abstracts submitted for the Student Paper Competition (and the accompanying letter from the student’s advisor) are due on the same date as all other abstracts submitted to the Medical Care Section. Only complete submissions will be considered for the Student Paper Award Competition.

INVITED SESSIONS

Invited sessions are proposed, at the initiative of individual organizer(s). It is the responsibility of the session organizer to plan and develop the session, secure the five presenters, and submit all materials through the Medical Care Section call for abstracts.  The invited session process is highly competitive and slots are limited.

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

• Invited sessions should be organized around a common theme that aligns with the Medical Care Section focus areas
• Abstracts should demonstrate their scientific quality and innovation
• Work should have been carried out rather than just proposed or in progress.
• Presenters at the Annual Meeting must be individual members of APHA Medical Care Section.
• All presenters must register for the Annual Meeting
• 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:

Wassim Tarraf
Wayne State University
87 East Ferry Street
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 313-664-2632
wassim.tarraf@wayne.edu

and
Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio
rmonguio@gmail.com

and
Cody Muller
Linton, IN
cody.mullen@gmail.com