News Briefs

HealthLeaderReceives National Award

HealthLeader, the online consumer health news service from the UT Health Science Center at Houston’s Office of Public Affairs, received a Silver Level eHealthcare Leadership Award in the Best Health/Health Care Content category from eHealthcare Strategies and Trends. EHealthcare analyzes online health care publications’ content based on: how extensive, balanced, up-to-date, well-organized and credible the information is. HealthLeader, at http://www.uthealthleader.org, is edited by Karen Krakower and designed by Sophia Solis.

Collaboration Against Heart Disease

A concerted, collaborative commitment to reduce heart disease will be the focus of the Schull Institute Medical Conference, Feb 12-13, at Reliant Center. The nonprofit Schull Institute was founded by William J. Schull, Ph.D., who was Ashbel Smith Professor at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston before his retirement in 1998 and is still a faculty member at the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

“By engaging all the parties who come into contact with patients who are vulnerable to heart attacks or atherosclerosis, we believe it is possible to take the first steps toward reversing the social and economic toll that heart-related illnesses extract from individuals and their families,” said Kim Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of the Schull Institute and associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the UT School of Health Information Sciences at Houston (SHIS).

The conference opens with a keynote address on “Determinants of a Healthy Society” by Alvin Tarlov, M.D., executive director, Texas Program for Society and Health, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, and professor at the School of Public Health. The program includes sessions on prevention of heart attacks, financing health care and informatics.

SHIS faculty members who will speak or chair sessions are: Dunn; Jack Smith, M.D., Ph.D., interim dean; Noriaki Aoki, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor; Elmer Bernstam, M.D., assistant professor and also in internal medicine at the Medical School; Cynthia L. Phelps, Ph.D., associate professor, Health Science Education Program; and Jiajie Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor and associate dean for research. Also speaking will be Deanna Grimes, Dr.P.H., associate professor and division head, Community Health Nursing, UT School of Nursing at Houston, and associate professor, School of Public Health.

The conference is open to physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmaceutical and medical-testing manufacturers, wellness consultants, community not-for-profit organizations, insurers, employers, and government payers. Cardeo is sponsoring the medical conference and a consumer health expo at Reliant Center Feb. 14 and 15. For more information or registration, see http://www.cardeo.com or call the Schull Institute, (713) 571-7844.