WVHKFC UPDATE FOR FALL, 2005
 

‘Growing Healthy Children’ Child Health Conference– November 10-12, 2005

     WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition is pleased to announce that planning is underway for West Virginia’s first conference on children’s health, “Growing Healthy Children: Conversations About West Virginia’s Future” . The conference will be held November 10-12, 2005 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston. First Lady Gayle Manchin and Dr. Joan Phillips, president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, will co-chair the conference.
     The conference will bring together professionals who work with children and policymakers. National and state leaders in child health will present on such topics as oral health, health access and quality, wellness, and prenatal wellness and child development.  It is the hope of the WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition and all of its partners that this conference is just the beginning of a conversation about how we make children’s health a top priority in West Virginia.
     Space is still available, so register as soon as possible. A registration brochure and on-line registration form is available on our web-site at www.wvhealthykids.org

WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition Celebration Set for December 7, 2005

     Join the WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition in celebrating the end of seven years of work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation– Covering Kids and Families Project.
     The celebration will be held at the John XXIII Pastoral Center on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Lunch will be served. If you plan to attend contact Julie Greathouse at jdg_outreach@hotmail.com.

‘Growing Healthy Children' Health Conference Agenda

The agenda for the ‘Growing Healthy Children’ Child Health Conference is as follows:

Thursday, November 10, 2005
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm Exhibit Setup
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Registration
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Welcome – First Lady Gayle Manchin & Dr. Joan Phillips
Plenary – Key Strategies for Improving Birth Outcomes – David Levin, MD, Senior
Medical Director, Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk, VA
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Dinner – Speakers – Senator John D. Rockefeller (invited)

Friday, November 11, 2005
8:30 am – 10:30 am Welcome – Beverly Railey Walter, Vice-President for Programs, Claude Worthington
Benedum Foundation.
Plenary – The Wide Ranging Health and Social Impact of Adverse Childhood
Experiences – Robert F. Anda, MD, MS, Co-founder, Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACE) Study
10:30 am – 10:45 am Break
10:45 am – 12:00 pm Workshop Session A
12:15 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch
No Greater Legacy Award
Proclamation for Prematurity Awareness Month – March of Dimes
First Lady Gayle Manchin & Dr. Joan Phillips
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Plenary – Improving Child Health Care Quality – Mort Wasserman, MD, University
of Vermont, Child Health Improvement Project
3:45 pm – 5:00 pm Workshop Session B
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm Exhibitors Reception

Saturday, November 12, 2005
8:30 am – 9:45 am Workshop Session C
9:45 am – 10:00 am Break
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Plenary – Preventing Overweight
Children: The Role of Health Care,
Schools, and Communities – Scott
Gee, MD, Medical Director, Prevention
and Health Information, Kaiser
Permanente Northern California, Oakland, CA

Plenary Session Speaker Spotlight– David Levin, MD

     The ‘Growing Healthy Children’ plenary session, “Key Strategies for Improving Birth Outcomes”, will feature David Levin, MD, Senior Medical Director, Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk, VA.
     This plenary will review strategies used by Sentara to improve birth outcomes as demonstrated by a reduction in NICU days and cost. The presentation will highlight care coordination, data management, and community partnerships. The Sentara Partners in Pregnancy program has been in operation since April 2002 and recently won the Disease Management Association of America Best Medicaid Disease Management Program Award.
     Dr. Levin is a Senior Medical Director for Sentara Healthcare, a non-profit integrated delivery system based in southeastern Virginia. He has worked in diverse areas including credentialing, disease management, quality improvement, patient safety, information systems, hospital operations, and new program development. Dr. Levin is the founder of “Partners in Pregnancy,” an innovative Sentara program which seeks to improve birth outcomes for both the commercial and Medicaid population. In addition, he is Medical Director for Sentara’s Community Health and
Prevention division.

Plenary Session Speaker Spotlight– Richard “Mort” Wasserman, MD

     ‘Improving Child Health Care Quality’, a plenary session by Richard “Mort” Wasserman, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, will include a presentation on how one rural state has moved over five years to improve child health care quality in a coordinated effort among practitioners, insurers, and policy makers. A panel of state experts will react to the presentation from policy and other perspectives.
     Dr. Wasserman is one of the founders of the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality and serves on the NICHQ Board of Directors. Within Vermont, Dr. Wasserman helped to create and works with the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program - a practice-based quality improvement collaboration between UVM, Vermont primary care practitioners, and Vermont state government. educational and other strategies to reduce the number of missed appointments by Medicaid-eligible patients.

Plenary Session Speaker Highlight -- Scott Gee, MD

     The plenary session, ‘Preventing Overweight Children: The Role of Health Care, Schools, and Communities will be held on Saturday, November 12 by Scott Gee, MD, Medical Director, Prevention and Health Information, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, CA.
     This lecture will review the behavioral, genetic and environmental etiologies for obesity among children. The role of health care, schools and communities will be explored. Dr. Gee is the Medical Director of Prevention and Health Information, with The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. in Oakland, CA. In this role, Dr. Gee provides the leadership and strategic planning for the preventive care of the 3 million Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California. He has led population based, quality improvement programs to address well child care visits for children and adolescents (Bright Systems®), prenatal care (Healthy Beginnings), preventive services for all members using computer generated reminders (Preventive Health Prompt), tobacco dependence and obesity.
     Dr. Gee is the chair for the childhood and adolescent overweight initiative which is sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also a member of the steering committee for the University of California, Berkeley- Center for Weight and Health and the board of directors for the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation.

Plenary Session Speaker Spotlight – Robert F. Anda, MD

     ‘The Wide Ranging Health and Social Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences’, presented by Robert F. Anda, MD, MS, Co-principal investigator of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, is the result of a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente.
     The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study demonstrates the relationship of childhood abuse, neglect, domestic violence and related experiences to health throughout the lifespan. The findings are consistent with recent discoveries about the neurobiology of
stress and the effect of stress on the developing central nervous system.
     Unlike other studies, the ACE study assessed a wide array of traumatic childhood experiences as well as many health and social problems from adolescence to late adulthood. The number of ACEs has a graded relationship to many common medical and public
health problems. An overview of these concepts and findings from the study will be presented.
     Dr. Anda played the principal role in the design of the ACE study, subsequent analysis of the ACE Study data, and preparation of its numerous scientific publications and serves as its Co-Principal Investigator.

Workshop Speaker Highlight -- Lise Eliot, Ph.D.

     “What’s Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life--What Every Health Professional Needs to Know and Share About Child Brain Development” will be presented by Lise Eliot, Ph.D.
     In her book by the same title, Lise Eliot, Ph.D., provides parents with easy-to-understand explanations of how a child’s brain develops from conception to age five, and also demonstrates ways that parents can help their children “grow better brains.” Dr. Eliot is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School. As a research neuroscientist, Lise Eliot has made the study of the human brain her life’s work.

Mark Your Calendar for the Children’s Policy Forum and Children’s Day at the Legislature 2006

     Once again, child advocates will gather to promote the importance of children’s issues. The Children’s Policy Forum and Children’s Day at the Legislature will be held on February 23 and 24, 2006. These events are still in the planning stages, but stay-tuned for information as it becomes available.