What is Public Health Grand Rounds?

On December 7, 2015, a panel of distinguished speakers joined 150 participant-observers at Pitt Public Health's second annual Jonas Salk Symposium. During this year's symposium scholars representing different fields discussed the intersection of wisdom and aging, each through a unique lens ranging from anthropology to neurobiology.  A lively discussion was held between the panelists and observers representing the University and Pittsburgh communities, including several dozen participants from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. 

Following the symposium, panelists gathered to begin work on an article for publication. Pitt Public Health continues to advance this topic through the Center for Aging and Population Health and in collaboration with the UPMC/Pitt Aging Institute.

The CHE brings together a panel of experts for its spring Journal Club Symposium addressing the challenges of inclusion equity in community development,

GR Approved

How can we protect human health from the effects of climate change? Award-winning professor Jonathan Patz will relate the historic outcomes of the UN Conference of the Parties meeting (COP21) to his more than two decades of research on the health effects of climate change and show how a low-carbon economy can offer large public health opportunities. 

Space is limited, so reserve your seat online at tinyurl.com/climate-patz.

Featured panelists include Lauren Bealafeld Brungo, MPH, BSH, RN, (UPMC), Abby Wilson, JD (ACHD), Jesabel-Rivera-Guerra, MPH (Highmark), and Heidi Balog, BSN (UPMC). 

Sponsored by Pitt Public Health's Association of Women in Public Health. 

Pitt Public Health and the Global Health Student Association Presents: "The Naked Truth: Death by Fentanyl." Pre-mix & mingle at 6-7pm. Film begins at 7pm followed by a distinguished panel discussion moderated by Dean Dr. Donald Burke. The documentary highlights how fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin. So potent, three grains are lethal to an adult. First synthesized in the 1960s, it’s been used to treat severe pain in cancer patients. Today, fentanyl has two main sources: the prescription drug industry, and Mexican drug cartels. And it’s the quiet culprit behind the current “heroin” crisis, one of the deadliest drug epidemics in American history. In the documentary above, “Death by Fentanyl,” Fusion’s The Naked Truth investigates the rise of fentanyl in all its forms … and its sometimes deadly consequences. In the stories, learn how FENTANYL FIRST HIT THE STREETS, Breaking Bad-style; how the drug HAS TRANSFORMED LIFE in one major U.S. city; and how some of its legal manufacturers also profit from drugs to reverse its deadly effects. Reception prior to movie begins at 6 p.m.

A conversation on the similarities, differences and opportunities for collaboration between traditional public health and population health initiatives in health care settings.

Join the Health Policy and Management Association for an engaging panel discussion on the differences and similarities between traditional public health work and hospital-based population health initiatives spurred by the Affordable Care Act, as well as new opportunities for collaboration between public health and health care entities. The guest panel will include:

•  Susan Frank, Vice President at Allegheny Health Network
• Scott Lammie, Chief Financial Officer at UPMC Health Plan
• Dr. Karen Hacker, Director of the Allegheny County Health Department, 
• Dr. Steve Albert, Professor and Chair of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, and 
• Professor Everette James, Executive Director of the University of Pittsburgh Health Policy Institute (moderator)

The event will consist of about 30-40 minutes of prepared questions for the panelists, followed by open Q&A. If you'd like to submit a question for the prepared section of the panel, please email your submission to deb85@pitt.edu by February 25. Open to all health sciences students across the university. Public Health Grand Rounds credit will be provided! 

registration required - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/panel-discussion-population-health-vs-public-health-whats-the-difference-tickets-21690753628

Presented by Norman Tonti, ASN, MPPM, public health emergency response coordinator, Allegheny County Health Department. 

Sponsored by the Student Government Association. 

The 2016 Porter Prize will be awarded to physician, educator, virologist, and author, Paul A. Offit, MD, who will speak on "Unvaccinated: The Strange History of Vaccine Exemptions." Offit serves as the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

A question and answer period, moderated by Paul Guggenheimer of WESA radio’s Essential Pittsburgh, will follow Dr. Offit’s keynote presentation.

AWARD CEREMONY | KEYNOTE  PRESENTATION | Q&A SESSION | RECEPTION & BOOK SIGNING

REGISTRATION REQUIRED>>  publichealth.pitt.edu/porterprize 

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. View the full schedule at publichealth.pitt.edu/deansday. 

Session I: noon-1:30 p.m.
Session II: 1-2:30-4 p.m.

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. Read more..

Monday, April 4

Session III: 9:30-11 a.m.
Session IV: noon-1:30 p.m.
Session V: 2:30-4 p.m.

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. Read more..

 “Genetic Epidemiology Research Based in Electronic Health Records”         

Join the DSO for a Grand Rounds-approved panel of Pitt Public Health doctoral alumni to discuss their experiences and opportunities after graduate school. Refreshments will be served.

Followed by a school-wide celebration. 

The Allegheny County Overdose Prevention Coalition (ACOPC) presents its annual summer conference entitled “Anatomy of Recovery: Peaks and Valleys” in SCAIFE HALL, LECTURE ROOMS 5 & 6.  The keynote address "Substance Use Prevention and Treatment in the Commonwealth" will feature Gary Tennis, Secretary of the PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.  

View flyer for details or register online at pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a9qGdL4IC2GN8ZT

Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH, James W. Rockwell Professor of Public Health, Vice President for Innovation, The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX

Topic: The Creativity Crisis

Lucile Adams‐Campbell (EPI '83), PhD, Associate Director, Minority Health & Health Disparities Research, Professor of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC), Georgetown University, Washington DC

Topic: Addressing Breast Cancer Disparities

Presented by Lee Harrison, MD, Professor and Head of Pitt's Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit. Followed by a Q and A.

Part of the Office of Student Affair's Food for Thought Series, designed to bring the Pitt Public Health community together for thoughtful discussion of today's issues - over food! Events are open to faculty, staff, and students.

How can we complete the eradication of polio? Dr. Peter Salk will share his thoughts in a Food for Thought lecture on the challenges of eliminating the world's last few cases of polio. The son of Dr. Jonas Salk--who invented the polio vaccine introduced in 1955--Dr. Peter Salk is director and president of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation and a visiting professor in IDM.

Part of the Office of Student Affairs' Food for Thought Series, designed to bring the Pitt Public Health community together for thoughtful discussion of today's issues - over food! 

The Pennsylvania Department of Health is exploring an innovative budgeting process to help save some of our rural hospitals in danger of closing. Losing these hospitals would remove access to health care and public health services for many, worsening the health of the state. 

Presented by Lauren Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, FAAFP, a practicing family physician and deputy secretary for health innovation, PA Dept. of Health. 

Silva is assistant professor of sociology at Bucknell University and was the lead qualitative researcher for Robert Putnam's book, Our Kids. Her current book project, We’re Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America, examines working-class people’s political beliefs and behaviors in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Panelists include: Margaret Palumbo, executive director for PAcares, Helen Hawkey, executive director of the PA Coalition for Oral Health, and Jennifer Fiddner, epidemiology research associate, ACHD.

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. View the full schedule at publichealth.pitt.edu/deansday. 

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. View the full schedule at publichealth.pitt.edu/deansday. 

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes and students complete peer evaluations for GR credit during multiple poster sessions over three days. View the full schedule at publichealth.pitt.edu/deansday. 

Come join the Global Health Student Association for their first film series screening of the new academic year, Out and Around. Food and light refreshments will be served!

Rachel Levine, physician general and acting secretary of health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, will speak on health topics in the LGBTQ community, about her background as a transgender physician, and her efforts to combat the state's ongoing opioid epidemic. As physician general, Levine has made significant strides in combating the opioid epidemic and advocating on behalf of the LGBTQ population.  
Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Pre-Health Professions and the Rainbow Alliance. 

Grand Rounds credit will be given for attendance at one or more of the workshop sessions. Check CourseWeb for details. This event is offered for 8 CPH CE credits.

To mark his installation as the Philip Hallen Endowed Chair in Community Health and Social Justice, BCHS’s STEVEN ALBERT will revisit Rousseau’s 1754 "Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men," or “Second Discourse.” We have moved beyond early philosophical speculation to an emerging science of inequality, where the emergence of hierarchy can be explored experimentally. Health disparities can be viewed through this same lens and offer lessons on remediating inequality. 
Lecture also viewable via webcast. Reception to follow in the Public Health Commons.

Film screening and discussion featuring Jessie Burke, PhD, associate dean for education and associate professor, behavioral and community health sciences, and Ruth Modzelewski, PhD, mission coordinator at Susan G. Komen Pittsburgh and Pitt Public Health alum. 

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies is a PBS documentary based on this year's One Book, One Community book. This film tells the story of cancer, from its first description in an ancient Egyptian scroll to the gleaming laboratories of modern research institutions. 

Episode 2, The Blind Men and the Elephant, picks up the story in the wake of the declaration of a “war on cancer” by Richard Nixon in 1971. Flush with optimism and awash with federal dollars, the cancer field plunges forward in search of a cure... Read more...

Film screening and discussion featuring Jessie Burke, PhD, associate dean for education and associate professor, behavioral and community health sciences, and Ruth Modzelewski, PhD, mission coordinator at Susan G. Komen Pittsburgh and Pitt Public Health alum. 

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies is a PBS documentary based on this year's One Book, One Community book. This film tells the story of cancer, from its first description in an ancient Egyptian scroll to the gleaming laboratories of modern research institutions. 

Episode 3, Finding the Achilles Heel, picks up the story at a moment of buoyant optimism in the cancer world: Scientists believe they have cracked the essential mystery of the malignant cell and the first targeted therapies have been developed, with the promise of many more to follow. Read more...

Pitt Public Health and the Center for Bioethics and Health Law present a joint lecture by Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA on “Ethical and Policy Considerations and the Use of Biomedical Approaches to Preventing HIV Infection.”

As part of the PGH-GLA Project, Dr. Kenneth Thompson will present on "The future of post-industrial cities, with a focus on health equity, resilience and diseases of despair". Thompson's talk will be followed by a panel, featuring: Dr. Duncan Booker, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Glasgow; Lou Ann Jeremko, Executive Director, Consumer Health Coalition; and Dr. Pete Seaman, Associate Director of the Glasgow Center for Population Health.

The Violence Prevention Initiative at Pitt Public Health is pleased to host Tio Hardiman, executive director of Chicago's CeaseFire Violence Interrupters, Inc. whose model treats firearm violence as an infectious process and uses street-savvy interventionists to interrupt violence. 

Firearm injury is a major public health challenge.In 2015 rates of homicide were 2.1 per 100,000 for whites but 17.2 per 100,000 for African Americans. Nonfatal firearm injuries by race were 4.7 vs. 58.6 per 100,000, respectively. 

Hardiman's talk on “Interrupting the Cycle of Violence” will be followed by a discussion with panelists including BCHS's Richard Garland and Taili Thompson of the Allegheny County Health Department.

Naked Cancer: Seeing Past the Emperor's New Clothes

with Theresa Brown, RN, former oncology nurse and breast cancer patient

Known for recent works “Breast Cancer Is Serious. Pink Is Not.” & The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives

Join Marnie Schilken, Chief Impact Officer at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, as she engages us in thinking through the lives of three different individuals and how food secure or insecure they might be. We will think about the drivers that allow a household or individual to be more or less food secure, and brainstorm what can happen if we tweak each scenario here and there. Will people fare better or worse? Marnie will also describe to us the various programs at the Food Bank and share with us why and how the Food Bank keeps in mind the people and agencies it serves as it strives to “feed people in need and mobilize the community to end hunger.”

Moderator: Donald S. Burke, Dean

Panelists:
Latika Davis-Jones, (BCHS ’07), Assistant Deputy Director, Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Behavioral Health, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services

Eric Hulsey, (BCHS ‘08), Manager of Behavioral Health Analytics, Office of Data Analytics, Research and Evaluation, Allegheny County Department of Human Services

Jan Pringle, (INDHYG ’81, EPI ’86), Director, PERU

Amy Hartman, Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Primary Faculty, Center for Vaccine Research, Secondary Faculty, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Didier Chalhoub, (MMPH ’12, EPI ‘15), Visiting Fellow, NIH Interdisciplinary Studies Aging Section 

Kelly Saldana, (BCHS ’01), Director, Office of Health Systems, Bureau for Global Health, USAID, 

Wes Rohrer, Associate Professor, Public Health Education, Health Policy and Management, Assistant Professor, Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, and Assistant Professor, Health Information Management, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

It’s easy for public health to get lost in the scandals and breaking news of every day life. How do you get heard? What grabs the media’s attention? Journalist and author Heather Boerner, whose work has appeared in PBS NewsHour, The Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic and elsewhere, will share how she selects stories, communicates clearly about complicated public health questions, and tries to bring abstract ideas of public health policy to the human level.

The ​Food for Thought Series brings together the entire Pitt Public Health community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni for thoughtful discussion of today's issues--over food!

This symposium aims to examine—from multiple perspectives—the mixed legacy of Thomas Parran, Pitt Public Health's founding dean. Expert panelists include Greg Dober, Susan Reverby, Bill Jenkins, Kirk Savage will consider this complicated legacy. 

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes over three days. 

Thursday, April 5 - Session I: 1-3 p.m.

Friday, April 6 - Session II: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session III: 1-3 p.m.

Monday, April 9 - Session IV: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session V: 1-3 p.m.

All poster sessions held in the Pitt Public Health Commons.

*Students will earn GR points by completing peer reviews of posters. 3 completed reviews = 1 GR point. Time permitting, students may complete 6 reviews.  

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes over three days. 

Thursday, April 5 - Session I: 1-3 p.m.

Friday, April 6 - Session II: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session III: 1-3 p.m.

Monday, April 9 - Session IV: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session V: 1-3 p.m.

All poster sessions held in the Pitt Public Health Commons.

*Students will earn GR points by completing peer reviews of posters. 3 completed reviews = 1 GR point. Time permitting, students may complete 6 reviews.  

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes over three days. 

Thursday, April 5 - Session I: 1-3 p.m.

Friday, April 6 - Session II: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session III: 1-3 p.m.

Monday, April 9 - Session IV: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session V: 1-3 p.m.

All poster sessions held in the Pitt Public Health Commons.

*Students will earn GR points by completing peer reviews of posters. 3 completed reviews = 1 GR point. Time permitting, students may complete 6 reviews.  

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes over three days. 

Thursday, April 5 - Session I: 1-3 p.m.

Friday, April 6 - Session II: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session III: 1-3 p.m.

Monday, April 9 - Session IV: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session V: 1-3 p.m.

All poster sessions held in the Pitt Public Health Commons.

*Students will earn GR points by completing peer reviews of posters. 3 completed reviews = 1 GR point. Time permitting, students may complete 6 reviews.  

Learn about student research as presenters compete for prizes over three days. 

Thursday, April 5 - Session I: 1-3 p.m.

Friday, April 6 - Session II: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session III: 1-3 p.m.

Monday, April 9 - Session IV: 9:30-11:30 a.m. & Session V: 1-3 p.m.

All poster sessions held in the Pitt Public Health Commons.

*Students will earn GR points by completing peer reviews of posters. 3 completed reviews = 1 GR point. Time permitting, students may complete 6 reviews.  

For the 2018 Kim Sutton-Tyrrell Lecture Dr. Matthew Allison of the University of California San Diego's Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Division of Preventative Medicine will present on "Systemic Arterial Calcification: What is It Trying to Tell Us?"

Presented by Jane A. Cauley, DrPH. 

Each year since 2004, the Department of Human Genetics has held a guest lecture in honor of former faculty member Ching Chun "C.C." Li.  For the 2018 C.C. Li lecture, Li. Jonathan Pritchard, professor in the Departments of Genetics and Biology HHMI Investigator at Stanford University presents "Omnigenic architecture of human complex traits."