Category: Information and Social Media

A Global Look at Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Strategies for Success (HHS Webcast)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

The Office of Adolescent Health invites you to attend its free webcast – A Global Look at Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Strategies for Success – on Thursday, May 2nd from 2:00 – 3:00pm ET.

Hear from Robert W. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD, an expert in adolescent health and teen pregnancy, about how teen pregnancy outcomes in the United States compare globally, and what we can learn from teen pregnancy prevention efforts abroad. During it, Dr. Blum will address the following questions:

  • How do adolescent pregnancy and childbearing statistics in the United States compare globally?
  • How do different factors and characteristics impact an adolescent’s risk of teen pregnancy?
  • What do we know about effective teen pregnancy prevention?

Dr. Blum will also answer some commonly asked questions concerning teen pregnancy prevention.

Register here, and please forward this message to others who care about teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent health.   We also invite you to live tweet during the webcast using#TPPGlobal, and be sure to follow OAH on Twitter at @TeenHealthGov .  This webcast will kick off a month of activities by OAH for its third annual recognition of National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.

About Robert W. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD

Dr. Blum is the William H. Gates, Sr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has edited two books, and has written nearly 250 journal articles, book chapters and special reports. In July 2007, Dr. Blum was named the Director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute. He is also a consultant to The World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.

WHO Video: Control Your Blood Pressure – World Health Day 2013

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


This World Health Day, 7 April, WHO and partners focus on the global problem of high blood pressure. Many people do not know they have high blood pressure because it does not always cause symptoms. As a result, it contributes to more than nine million deaths every year, including about half of all deaths due to heart disease and stroke. Cut your risk of developing high blood pressure by: cutting down on salt; eating a balanced diet; avoiding harmful use of alcohol; doing regular physical activity; and avoiding tobacco use. Join the World Health Day conversation on Twitter @WHO – #CutRisks.

For more information: http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2013/en/index.html

WHO: Global status report on road safety 2013

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


Around 3400 people lose their lives in road traffic crashes every day. For those who are left behind, road traffic crashes lead to a tremendous amount of pain and suffering and – in many settings around the world – to economic hardship. This video was produced to mark the launch of the Global status report on road safety 2013 on 14 March 2013 which presents information on road safety from 182 countries. The report highlights that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year, legislation and enforcement are still inadequate, and pedestrians and cyclists need to be better protected. Made possible through funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, this is the second in a series of Global status reports.

APHA’s New Networking Platform

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Information and Social Media

IH Section members: This post was originally posted in December of last year. However, APHA has recently made some changes to the platform, so I am re-posting it with updated information.

Happy Holidays, IH Section members! Hopefully this holiday season finds you all happy and healthy, with whatever projects you are working on going well. The purpose of this post is to introduce you to a new networking and communication platform that they have introduced. It is APHA’s Online Community, and it is integrated into your APHA membership profile. The purpose of the community is to encourage members of APHA to connect and discuss shared professional interests and information about events relevant to you and your colleagues. The platform was just recently opened to the general membership, so I have taken some time to explore its different features and thought I would share them here. Please note that you can click on any of the screen shots below

In order to access the community, visit http://connect.apha.org and use your APHA membership ID and password to log in. If you don’t have this information, just go to APHA’s website and request that an e-mail with the information be sent to you (About Us > Membership Information > Update Your Member Profile, then click the link that says “Forgot Your Username and Password?”).

login screen

After logging in, you should come to the following screen. From here, you can access your Member Profile, the groups you are a member of, and your e-mail delivery settings.

welcome screen

The first thing you should do is set up your Member Profile so that other members with similar interests can network with you. If you go to edit your profile, you will come to the following screen:

edit profile

Here, you can edit your name, your photo, your academic background, where you work, tags (keywords that allow other members to search for you based on your interests), address and phone numbers (only if you choose to make them available to other members), a short bio, and any social media profiles you have (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). Once you have input all of this information, you can view your profile as others see it.

view profile

The main focus of the community, however, are the discussions that APHA is encouraging members to have within their professional sections. When you go to access “My Groups” (the link is in the upper right-hand corner of the screen), you will come to a screen that looks like this:

my groups

From there, you can access the group that corresponds to the section(s) of which you are a member.

IH section group

Within each section’s group are the tools for communication and networking with other members. Here, you can search the section membership, access e-mail listservs, put events on the calendar, post to the bulletin board (essentially a message board), upload documents to the library, and post content to the wiki.

This tool has great potential to increase communication and networking among members. I strongly encourage you all to log in, set up a profile, and have a look around!

MSF Video: “A Humiliating Situation,” Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

by ihsection, posted in Conflict and Health, Information and Social Media

This is a video by MSF taking a special look at Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon to escape the country’s civil war. It is necessary reminder of the urgency of what is currently the world’s largest refugee crisis.


Meet some of the more than 120,000 Syrian refugees living in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon while their country is at war. Families are living in camps, unfinished houses, and abandoned buildings. They are not getting adequate aid.