Wednesday

Another typical day at school.

Environmental Health lecture about workplace health.

Then it was Designing and Implementing Interventions. We discussed the application of theory in designing health interventions and then each student discussed the theory/theories they intended to use for the intervention that is our semester project.

The more I write the more I wish I had taken a technical writing course at some point. Don't get me wrong, I manage, but having more background experience would be nice at times. I've been browsing the open courseware at MIT and found the materials for both a general scientific/technical writing class and one specifically focused on medicine and public health. When I get some time I'm going to look into what's available on them. But unfortunately I know that looking through online class materials will never be as good as getting critique from an instructor.

Tomorrow we have an early journal club and then I'm headed down to Sigourney for the afternoon. As part of my Communicating with the Community class I have to interview "key stakeholders" for my project. Tomorrow I'm interviewing a primary care provider. Tonight was spent revising my interview guide in preparation.

And on a side note: I made my own butter! It's pretty easy and it tastes absolutely heavenly. This plays into my mild obsession with "real food" Real food is a term coined by Michael Pollan. Here is a brief article explaining it, if you want something more in depth I would suggest reading his book In Defense of Food.

Fat Tax

Denmark's new "fat tax" on food containing more than 2.3% saturated fax has caused an explosion of news stories.

This is the latest attempt to reduce obesity, the public health concern of the century.

My question is what happens with the income generated from the tax? Will it be used to fund more obesity treatment/interventions? That would seem a logical choice and probably the one to make the most health difference.

This BBC story is brief but brings up some interesting questions.

Similar ideas have been discussed for soda and the like in the United States. With this move by Denmark perhaps we will get actual evidence on the efficacy of such interventions.

October 3-9

CBH Activities/Meetings
Oct 6, 8:30 a.m. Journal Club W421 GH
Oct 6, 11 a.m., CBH Seminar-Julie Ansager, 283 EMRB

CPH Activities/Meetings
Oct 5, 7 p.m., ECO Hawk meeting, IMU Purdue Room
Oct 7, 3:45 p.m., CPH Open Forum, 1117 MERF
Oct 7, noon, Start Somewhere Walk (link)

Other Events related to public health
Oct 5, 1 p.m. CDT, Policy Webinar (using policy as a tool to improve population health), link
Oct 6, 10 a.m., Webinar on Final Review of Healthy People 2010, link
Oct 7, (all day) HIV/AIDS Conference @ hotelVetro, Iowa City

Week of September 19th

I'm trying something new. I get massive numbers of emails with different events on different days. Sometimes I get them 1 week ahead, sometimes I get them 4 weeks ahead. They all too easily fall to the bottom of my inbox and the date passes. So....as a service to everyone I am attempting to compile these emails as they come into my inbox. Then, every Sunday I will send out an email with events for the next 7 days.

The next few weeks I will try different formats. I would love to get feedback on what people think of this (e.g. more events? less events? different events?) This week I am organizing everything by day. Next week I will try organizing them by event type.

Monday Sept 19
5:30-7:30 p.m. Free CPR/AED Certification and Alcohol Bystander Training. Brochure

Tuesday Sept 20
APHA Get Ready Day
CBH Picnic! (You should have already signed up for this one...)

Wednesday Sept 21
ECO Hawk meeting, 7 pm, IMU Purdue Room
Thursday Sept 22
Fall Job & Internship Fair, 11 am to 4 pm: IMU Main Lounge website

Lecture-Memories of Oakdale Sanitorium, 5:30-6:30 pm: UI Main Library, Room 2032

Friday Sept 23
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference brochure

I'm still here at this lovely conference. Unfortunately I don't have a great tool for in depth updates (aka something with an actual keyboard- I left my iPad keyboard at home). But if you want brief immediate updates check out my twitter feed (twitter.com/lwehr) I'm tweeting the conference with the hashtag #ehconference ~L - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Conference!

Today I'm attending the "Engaging Communities to Advance Environmental Health Policy" conference here in Iowa City. I'll have updates later tonight or tomorrow. ~L - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Here we go again!

The University is back in full swing. I have finally gotten my work switched to the right schedule and am getting settled into the routine of classes again. Even though I took classes over the summer I also worked full-time. Inverting the balance to full-time classes and part-time work definitely gives it a different feel.

We have some great new students joining the department this year. I have one picture from the various orientation activities we had. There was also a digital photo scavenger hunt, but unfortunately none of the students participating have sent me those pictures yet (hint hint).

This semester the classes I'm taking are Environmental Health, Designing and Implementing Interventions, and Communicating with the Community. So far it's turning out to be a great lineup. And I only have class 2 days/week, so I can't really complain.

My summer was full of traveling to see friends, visiting my boyfriend and family, and doing all those great things that only happen in the summer (the state fair!) Shortly before school started I went out to Denver, CO to visit a friend who had just moved out there to start graduate school. I had never been to Colorado so it was a lot of fun. My friend is also in a health science field, so I had a chance to look at the facilities the University of Colorado School of Public Health has. I also got some great pictures in the mountains and Denver Botanic Gardens.

I also hit up the Des Moines Zoo (a little lacking as far as zoos go, but I love zoos so it doesn't really matter)

And now I'm off to do some studying. Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

~L