Semi-Formal & Ghostbusters

Last night was the College of Public Health Student Association semi-formal, which was a blast and a nice break from school, work, and job hunting. It was great to see people from all five departments there! I think the new building has already helped a lot in unifying the different departments, but this event was a fun way to bring different groups together.

After the semi-formal, I went out and saw a midnight showing of Ghostbusters, which was great as always, although I had forgotten that an EPA agent is portrayed as a bad guy! That was a bit of a bummer. Apparently at least one person actually has used Ghostbusters to illustrate why they think the EPA is bad. I mean, honestly though, even within Ghostbusters, it's not like the EPA wasn't somewhat justified in trying to stop them. In the movie, Dr. Peter Venkman calls the proton packs they use "unlicensed nuclear accelerators" - I can understand why there might be some environmental health concerns with that!

Anyway, not much else is new with me. There are some new pictures of the College of Public Health building, so if you haven't gotten a chance to see if for yourself - check these out!

Here are some articles I've read recently that were interesting:

Latest Drug Shortage Threatens Children with Leukemia - Richard Knox, NPR

What Obama's Budget Proposal Means for Disease Prevention - Betsy McKay, Wall Street Journal

In Women, Heart Attacks Often Strike Without Chest Pain - Scott Hensley, NPR

Trip to the State Capitol!

Yesterday I traveled with a social worker and a group of nurses from the Oncology Nursing Society to Des Moines to talk to state senators about cancer issues. On the way up, I gave an overview of the Iowa Cancer Consortium and the ICC’s legislative priorities for the year. It was really interesting to hear about what the nurses wanted to talk to legislators about.

A lot of them expressed frustration over the current medical home system, which was created to help people under the IowaCare plan. IowaCare covers low-income people who don’t qualify for Medicaid but aren’t insured, but unfortunately if they have cancer, they have to go to the UIHC in Iowa City to get their treatment, even if they live on the other side of the state. Many of these patients have difficulty paying for transportation to get to Iowa City and don’t have a place to stay once they get here. A medical home model had been created to allow IowaCare patients to get their primary care needs met closer to home at certain clinics, but this has caused many of its own problems, as there is no standardization for what the clinics can provide for these patients. Fortunately, a lot of this will change once the Affordable Care Act is implemented, since the majority of people in IowaCare will qualify for Medicaid once it’s been expanded (and then won't be required to go to Iowa City for specialty care), but until that happens, these patients still need help.

We were able to meet with four senators, including the senator from my hometown (Sen. Hogg of Cedar Rapids, who high-fived me when he found out I went to high school where his kids go) and my own senator Joe Bolkcom. Both Hogg and Bolkcom and another senator we met with, Sen. Dvorsky, are already really involved in cancer prevention and control efforts, which is wonderful. We were only able to talk with each of them for about ten minutes, but we left them each a folder filled with information about our legislative priorities and a copy of the Iowa Cancer Plan. It was a good trip!

Pandemic! (the board game)

Last night I played the board game Pandemic with some friends. I've been wanting to play this board game for a while (I'm a big fan of board games) and this one was really fun, and definitely the most public health-related board game I've ever played.

One of the neatest characteristics of this game is that it's cooperative. Although everyone is a unique professional with different skills, they all work together to try to contain four different diseases that are quickly spreading across the globe. You win if you find the cures for the four diseases before too many outbreaks occur or you run out of cards to draw. Unfortunately last night we were not able to beat the spread of the diseases and ended up losing, but I'm looking forward to playing it again soon! Hopefully our loss doesn't reflect my real-life public health skills!

Anyway, I could talk about board games forever, but here are some articles I read recently that you may also find interesting:

Cancer is just as deadly as it was 50 years ago. Here's why that's about to change. - Charlie Jane Anders, io9


Child abuse experts call for U.S. campaign - Frederik Joelving, Rueters

Researchers say malaria deaths are twice the official count - Richard Knox, NPR