Texas Public Health Journal a Quarterly Publication of the Texas Public Health Association (TPHA)
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Texas Public Health Journal A quarterly publication of the Texas Public Health Association (TPHA) Volume 67, Issue 1 Winter 2015 In This Issue President’s Message 2 Commissioner’s Comments - Ebola Response Highlights Strength of Public Health 4 Ebola Goes Viral: Google Trends Pattern of Ebola Searches During Recent Ebola Outbreak in Texas 4 Book Review: Redefining Medicine and Public Health – Atul Gawande, MD. (2014) Being Mortal: Medicine and What Happens in the End 7 GIS Day, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, Texas, November 19, 2014 8 Development of a Comprehensive 12-Week Health Promotion Program for Houston Airport System 11 Frequent Flyer Analysis of Emergency Department Visits in Tarrant County: Integrated Healthcare Informatics in Public Health 14 Please visit the Journal page of our website at http://www.texaspha.org for author information and instructions on submitting to our journal. Texas Public Health Association PO Box 201540, Austin, Texas 78720-1540 phone (512) 336-2520 fax (512) 336-0533 Email: [email protected] “The articles published in the Texas Public Health Journal do not necessarily reflect the official policy or opinions of the Texas Public Health Asso- ciation. Publication of an advertisement is not to be considered an endorsement or approval by the Texas Public Health Association of the product or service involved.” Subscriptions: Texas Public Health Journal, PO Box 201540, Austin, Texas 78720-1540. Rates are $75 per year. Subscriptions are included with memberships. Membership application and fees accessible at www.texaspha.org. Please visit the journal page for guidelines on submitting to the Texas Public Health Journal. Catherine Cooksley, DrPH - Editor Terri S. Pali - Managing Editor President’s Message Editorial Board Kaye Reynolds, MPH - Co-chair James Swan, Ph.D. Carol Galeener, PhD - Co-chair New Opportunities with New Partnerships Jean Brender, RN, PhD Amol Karmarker, PhD At the APHA Con- and promoting local coalition development Kimberly Fulda, DrPH ference in New – before your president and your Governing Mathias B. Forrester, BS Orleans, we were Council representative had even returned Natalie Archer, MPH made aware of a from the Conference. The break-neck Kathryn Cardarelli, PhD funding opportunity speed of the response meant that some lo- TPHA Officers President to strengthen coali- cal efforts could not be mounted. However, James H. Swan, PhD tion building to im- by December 2, eleven projects issued their President-Elect prove public health letters of interest, accompanied by endorse- Cindy Kilborn, MPH, M(ASCP) in communities across the country. The ments by and involvement of TPHA and the First Vice President announcement also went out electronically Texas APA chapter. These eleven propos- Melissa Oden, DHEd, LMSW-IPR, MPH, to affiliates leaders who may not have been als covered a diverse array of communities CHES at the Conference. The Centers for Disease throughout the state. There is, of course, Second Vice-President Control and Prevention had given a grant to no promise that any of the Texas propos- Bobby D. Schmidt, MEd Immediate Past President the American Planning Association (APA) als will be funded; but it speaks well of the Alexandra Garcia, PhD, RN, FAAN “to bring support to local coalitions in ef- leadership of TPHA, Texas APA, and a wide Executive Board forts to reduce chronic disease in communi- assortment of local agencies and organiza- Three Years ties across the United States.” The program tions that eleven projects went forward. Sandra H. Strickland, DrPH, RN required collaboration of APA chapters with Looking to the future, there is a likelihood Rachel Wiseman, MPH APHA state affiliates to lead coalitions to that the same or similar funding opportuni- Laura Wolfe, PhD improve “the capacity of planning and pub- ties will come from the CDC via the APA Two Years lic health leaders to work with community in the next two years. So TPHA members Rita Espinoza, MPH members to advance health-promoting built and local public health activists might start Debbie Flaniken One Year environments.” The purpose of the local planning coalitions now to respond to fur- Charla Edwards, RN, BSN, MSHP projects was to be to: “improve the capacity ther opportunities in the next year or two. Robert L. Drummond of planning and public health professionals Terri S. Pali, Executive Director to advance community-based strategies pro- From the Editor: As our associa- Governing Council viding for equitable access to healthcare and tion president described, TPHA is an ex- Three Years nutritious foods, opportunities for physical citing, dynamic organization and growing Martha Culver, RN, MSPH activity, and less exposure to and consump- more so every day through building new Kaye Reynolds, MPH, MT (ASCP), tion of tobacco.” Any proposed project had partnerships. Likewise, across the state, Jennifer Smith, MSHP public health focused groups are partner- Two Years to address at least one of these goals. Each Patricia Diana Brooks coalition proposal was to involve a broad ing with local public health entities to make Carol M. Davis, MSPH, CPH range of organizations in a defined com- Texas healthier. In this issue you will read Julie Herrmann munity to plan strategies and develop public about some innovative ways communities One Year health-improvement activities reaching at are working together to keep Texas healthy. Arianne Rhea least 50 percent of the targeted local popula- TPHA facilitates the following opportuni- Bobby D. Schmidt, MEd tions, aimed both at shorter-term health pro- ties for you and your colleagues. Want to Christine Arcari, PhD motion and long-term integration of public let your fellow public health professionals Section Chairs planners and public health professionals know about innovative partnering in your Gloria McNeil, RN, BSN, MEd- community? Submit your manuscripts, Administration & Management aimed at improving public health in the four Laura Wolfe, PhD areas of healthcare access, nutrition, physi- news briefs, opinion editorials and com- Aging and Public Health cal activity, and reduction of exposure to mentaries to the TPHJ! Want to learn about Ambericent Cornett-Epidemiology tobacco. Funding amounts per project were other community public health partnerships Terry Ricks, RS-Environmental & expected to fall in the range of $100,000 that you just might be able to use as models Consumer Health to $150,000. Up to two coalition projects in your community? Come join us in Austin Vacancy-Health Education could be funded per state. for our 91st annual education conference, Vacancy-Public Health Nursing This seemed like a wonderful opportunity February 23-25, 2015! Elizabeth Barney-Student Section Parliamentarian for TPHA involvement in coalition with Bobby Jones, DVM, MPH, DACVPM the APA and in developing local coalitions. Affiliate Representative to the However, funding cycles for the CDC im- APHA Governing Council posed a very-short lead time: letters of in- Catherine Cooksley, DrPH terest from each local coalition were due John R. Herbold, DVM, MPH, PhD December 2 and finished proposals by De- (Alternate) cember 22. Luckily for TPHA, Melissa Journal Typesetting Oden, our First Vice-President, began im- Charissa Crump mediately to contact the Texas APA Chapter 2 TPHA Journal Volume 67, Issue 1 Please attend one of the sponsored pre-conference workshops Monday morning 9-11:30 (cost included in registration) Session 1:Local Health Authority (LHA) Workshop Training Session 2:Table Top Exercise: Public Health Response to a Disease Outbreak Emergency Workshop Sponsored by the Texas Public Health Association Session 3:Public Health and Academic Partnerships Workshop-sponsored by the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch Session 4-Student Session (no CEU for this session) The target audience includes physicians, nurses, health educators, academicians, epidemiologists, registered sanitarians/environmental health professionals, nutritionists/dietitians, social workers, community mental health professionals and others working in public health and related fields. “Continuing education credit for multiple disciplines will be provided for this event” TPHA Journal Volume 67, Issue 1 3 Commissioner’s Comments Ebola Response Highlights Strength of Public Health David L. Lakey, M.D. Commissioner, Texas Department of State Health Services No state expected to have the first case. protective equipment, decontamination of homes and vehicles, and But on Sept. 30 a Texas hospital patient monitoring a pet. Mr. Duncan’s death led to questions about the han- tested positive for Ebola in our public dling of human remains, which are highly infectious with Ebola for health lab in Austin, making him the first months after death. person diagnosed with Ebola in the Unit- ed States. Over the course of the event, state and local public health profession- als in Texas monitored about 340 people who had varying risks of It’s a moment we in Texas public health will never forget. exposure to the virus. No secondary cases resulted from community exposure. The two secondary cases that did occur were Texas nurses The unfortunate diagnosis of Thomas Eric Duncan set in motion a who provided direct care for Mr. Duncan. Close monitoring by epi- ’round-the-clock operation to prevent the disease from spreading. It demiologists who coordinated twice-daily symptoms checks led to was a public health emergency that demanded the complete atten- the early