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CDC Honors Retiring Injury Center Director Sue Binder, MD
Celebrating 20 Years of Service to CDC
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Dr. Julie Gerberding presented the
flag to Dr. Sue Binder for retiring from the
Commissioned Corps. |
“This has been such an incredible three
and a half years! We did a lot of really excellent work, and we have a lot
to be proud of . . . the magic of CDC is that it allows you to do much
more, grow much more, and contribute much more than you ever could imagine.
I certainly was touched by that magic during my years at CDC, including
NCIPC. The magic largely comes from the wonderful people who make up this
agency and this Center.” —Dr. Sue Binder, May 14, 2004
Many of us have been touched by the same magic as Dr. Binder, the visionary. Sue’s accomplishments include developing CDC’s
national childhood lead poisoning prevention program, resulting in millions
of children being screened and millions of lives being saved. She also
crafted a plan for CDC’s strategic approach to countering emerging
infectious diseases. Sue helped position CDC’s Injury Center solidly on the
Washington agenda, expanded partnerships,
and continually touted the talents of the Injury Center’s staff.
Dr. Binder elevated awareness of unintentional injury as a silent killer to
which most people think they are immune. Her heartfelt concern motivated
her to work tirelessly toward injury losing its rank among the leading causes of death.
In her presentations, she was extremely adept at articulating both the stark
reality of injury and a message of hope—injuries are
preventable.
CDC's Injury Center proudly honored Dr. Binder at a retirement celebration
on May 14, 2004. Family, friends, CDC partners, co-workers, and former
colleagues, many of whom trekked across the country to attend the gala
event, commemorated Dr. Binder’s two decades of CDC contributions. Such a turnout
is a testament to her genuine passion for the well being of all people, her
strong leadership, and her positive impact on public health.
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More than one hundred guests
attended the retirement reception. |
Presentations ranged from poignant trips
down memory lane to gag gifts and a rousing parody of “Oh! SUEsannah.” Sue
joined in the laughter when presented with a caricature of herself zipping
about on rocket roller skates, while simultaneously answering her phone and
personal digital assistant, working on her computer, and carrying a tray of
her famous brownies.
In the words of CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, “I know you like to talk
about [the Injury Center] being the mouse that roared . . . [the] Injury
Center is no longer a mouse . . . it is coming into its own domain and has
the respect, the ability, and the power to rally people and coalitions and
constituents in an ever-increasing set of domains ....”
This is the legacy Dr. Binder leaves behind. She helped define the Injury
Center’s agenda and encouraged all of us to rededicate ourselves to our
mission. Thanks
to everyone who helped make her retirement reception memorable.
CDC's Injury Center Gets
Increased FY 2004 Budget
CDC received a 2% increase in Fiscal Year
2004 to reach a funding level of $7.1 billion. The Injury Center funding
level gained $5.2 million in Fiscal Year 2004 for a total of $153.6
million. The increase specifically supports child maltreatment, traumatic
brain injury, and the National Violent Death Reporting System.
In the Fiscal Year 2005 President’s Budget, CDC received near-level
funding of approximately $7 billion, and the Injury Center received level
funding of $154 Million. Congress is expected to deliberate on the Fiscal
Year 2005 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations
bills later this summer.
Reminder:
Applications for the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Program Due
September 15, 2004
The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is
the nation's premier epidemiology training service. This prestigious,
two-year, paid, postgraduate program trains health and health-related
professionals such as anthropologists, epidemiologists, nurses,
physicians, psychologists, sociologists, and veterinarians in the
practice of applied epidemiology and public health.
EIS officers take part in peer-reviewed research, field aid, and disaster
relief on worldwide projects and domestic public health issues. Officers
join the nation’s front lines of epidemic and disaster defense and
research. They are integral part of the global public health system,
working closely with world leaders in the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, CDC, other federal
agencies, the World Health Organization, and national and international
health departments.
To learn more about EIS opportunities with CDC's Injury Center, contact
Dr. Lynda Doll at (770) 488-4233.
For an application or to learn more about the EIS program, contact the CDC
Epidemiology Program Office toll free at (888) 496-8347 or
online at CDC EIS website.
Please share this announcement widely to foster interest in the EIS program within the injury and
violence prevention community.
HHS Awards $849 Million to Improve Public Health
Preparedness
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced
an additional $849 million in awards to states, territories, and four major
metropolitan areas. The funding will strengthen the ability of government and public
health agencies to respond to bioterror attacks, infectious diseases and
natural disasters.
CDC will distribute these
federal funds to public health departments in
the states, territories, and metro areas (New York City, Chicago, Los
Angeles County and Washington, D.C.). The money will improve the
readiness of the public health sector and major health-care providers
to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. More
information about the funding is available from the
HHS website.
CDC's Injury Center Thanks Scientific Review Panels
CDC's Injury Center thanks the individuals who
volunteered and served on the 2004 initial scientific review panels. These review panels are an important
step in the rigorous scientific peer review process and help the Injury
Center select quality research projects for funding. Also, the applicants
expressed appreciation to the Center for the review panelists' feedback.
CDC's Injury Center gave the summary statements to
the secondary peer review panel, the Science and Program Review
Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Injury Prevention and Control.
This subcommittee will review the projects for programmatic evaluation and
make funding recommendations to CDC's Injury Center director.
CDC's Injury Center will announce Fiscal Year 2004
funding awards through the NCIPC Announcements e-mail list. You can
subscribe to the e-mail
list online.
New Web Page
Spotlights Swimming and Public Health
The new Web page "Swim Healthy, Swim
Safely" serves as a gateway to CDC's online information related to swimming.
The page features links to information about preventing water-borne
diseases, water-related injuries, and skin cancer.
Advisory Committee for Injury Prevention and Control Discusses Strategic
Imperatives
The 44th meeting of the Advisory Committee
for Injury Prevention and Control (ACIPC) convened May 19–20, 2004 in Atlanta, GA.
Meeting participants discussed how the strategic imperatives identified through the CDC/ATSDR
Futures Initiative will influence the work of CDC’s Injury Center. The
strategic imperatives that will drive CDC’s work include:
- Achieving measurable health impact
- Being a customer-centric organization
- Strengthening our science through
public health research
- Providing leadership in the nation’s
health system
- Establishing global health priorities
- Becoming more effective and
accountable.
The ACIPC members broke into three
workgroups, and each workgroup addressed an imperative from the perspective
of motor vehicle-related injury prevention and control. Among other issues,
the workgroups identified the need for the Injury Center to
- Define its customers
- Identify and promote the use of
metrics to prioritize and measure the impact of injury prevention efforts
- Support the development of an injury
prevention and control public health infrastructure through training and
other capacity-building efforts.
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CDC Announces New Organizational Design
CDC's Injury Center Joins
Coordinating Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury
PreventionCDC Director Dr.
Julie Gerberding announced new integrated operations that will afford CDC
a greater impact on the health of people around the world. The
announcement evolved from an ongoing strategic development process called
the Futures Initiative, which began a year ago at CDC and included
hundreds of employees, other agencies, organizations, and the public in
the planning process.
The integrated organization groups the agency’s existing operational units
into four coordinating centers to help the agency leverage its resources
in responding to public health threats and emerging issues as well as
chronic health conditions. The Coordinating Center for Environmental
Health, Injury Prevention, and Occupational Health includes the
National Center for Environmental Health, the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry, the National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
More information about CDC's new organizational design is available from
the CDC Futures Initiative website.
Ileana
Arias, PhD, to Serve as Acting Director of the Injury Center
CDC has selected Dr. Ileana Arias to serve as acting director of the
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). Dr. Arias was
the chief of the Etiology and Surveillance Branch in
the Division of Violence Prevention in CDC's Injury Center. As a branch
chief since 2000, she had lead responsibility for planning,
directing, evaluating, and coordinating activities focused on surveillance.
She also oversaw epidemiologic and behavioral and social science research
studies to understand the etiology of violence.
Dr. Arias began her
career as a research associate at the State University of New York, Stony
Brook, and then joined the University of Georgia (UGA) as an assistant professor, where she held
successively more responsible teaching and supervisory positions. She
served as clinical training director and clinical psychology professor at
UGA before joining CDC. Dr. Arias
holds an AB from Barnard College and an MA and PhD in psychology from the
State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Dr. Arias is a well-respected clinical psychologist with research expertise
in intimate partner and family violence. She has authored numerous
peer-reviewed articles in professional journals and has given presentations
across the United States and in several foreign countries.
She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment,
and Trauma; the Review of Aggression and Violent Behavior; and
Violence and
Victims. Dr. Arias also is a reviewer for eleven professional journals.
Henry
Falk, MD, MPH, Heads New Coordinating Center for Environmental and
Occupational Health and Injury Prevention
CDC selected Dr. Henry Falk to lead the new Coordinating Center for
Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention.
Dr. Falk also serves as director of the
National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and as assistant
administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
He is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps, where his service culminated with being named Rear Admiral and being
appointed as Assistant U.S. Surgeon General.
At NCEH, Dr. Falk heads the
national effort to prevent or control environment-related diseases,
illness, and deaths. He also served NCEH for 14 years as director of the
Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects. At ATSDR, Dr. Falk
leads the mission to protect public health from
hazardous releases of toxic substances.
Since arriving at CDC in 1972 as an EIS
officer, Dr. Falk has imparted his
knowledge and leadership to myriad public health projects around the United
States and the world. His work includes contributions to the federal
responses to Three-Mile Island, Mount St. Helens, Hurricanes Hugo and
Andrew, and the September 11 attacks. Additionally, Dr. Falk has authored
or co-authored more than 100 publications spanning a range of subjects,
including vinyl chloride-induced liver cancer, prevention of lead
poisoning, and health effects of environmental hazards. Dr. Falk earned his
MD from
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1968, and he
received a MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in
1976.
More information about the Coordinating
Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention is
available from the CDC Futures Initiative website.
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Unintentional and Undetermined Poisoning Deaths - 11 States, 1990-2001
The findings in this Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report article indicate that in the 11 states studied the unintentional and undetermined poisoning death rate
increased from 1990 to 2001. The findings also show that the types of
substances associated with these deaths varied by state. Among U.S. adults,
drug overdoses are the largest cause of poisoning deaths.
Using
Evidence-Based Parenting Programs to Advance CDC Efforts in Child
Maltreatment Prevention—Research
Brief 2004
CDC has launched several prevention
initiatives aimed at encouraging and promoting positive parent-child
interactions. These initiatives are summarized in Using
Evidence-Based Parenting Programs to Advance CDC Efforts in Child
Maltreatment Prevention—Research Brief 2004. The initiatives
result from extensive strategic planning and consultation with child
maltreatment prevention experts and promote positive parenting skills.
By acquiring such skills, parents and caregivers can better manage
children’s behavior and prevent violence before it occurs.
Central Nervous
System Injury Surveillance Data Submission Standards
CDC developed Central Nervous System
Injury Surveillance Data Submission Standards, 2002 as a guide
for collecting, formatting, evaluating, and submitting traumatic brain
injury surveillance
data to the CDC. The guide will help states to submit their
surveillance data in a structured and consistent format.
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School
Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide Includes Injury and
Violence
CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion announces the release of the third
edition of the School Health Index: A Self-Assessment and Planning
Guide. This Index will enable schools to
address their policies and programs related to safety (unintentional
injury and violence prevention) in addition to the physical activity,
nutrition, and tobacco-free lifestyle issues addressed in the previous
editions.
To order a free printed copy:
When ordering, please specify
- elementary school version or
middle/high school version
- number of
copies requested.
In addition to the new printed edition, an
online version of the School
Health Index is available.
Report
on Deaths: Injuries, 2001 (PDF requires
Adobe
Acrobat)
CDC's National Center for Health
Statistics recently released the report Deaths: Injuries, 2001 based
on data recorded from death certificates issued in 2001. This report is the
first in an annual series of injury mortality reports. Among its
highlights, the report notes that injuries were the fifth leading cause of
death in 2001, accounting for 157,078 (6.5 percent) of the 2,416,425 deaths
reported that year.
Call for Abstracts: Steps to a Healthier U.S. Workforce Symposium
CDC's National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health announces a call for abstracts for the inaugural Steps to a Healthier U.S.
Abstracts are welcome for
oral presentation, poster presentation, or roundtable discussion session. The
symposium
will provide researchers, policymakers, practitioners, academics, employers,
and labor leaders with an opportunity to share their experiences with integrated
and coordinated health promotion and protection programs and will assess the
scientific and economic basis of these approaches. The conference planning
committee is accepting abstracts about research or worksite programs.
The deadline for abstract submission is
August 27, 2004. For submission guidelines and more information, visit
the symposium
website.
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"What's New" Section Devoted to Grantees
This new section, Grantees' Corner, focuses on CDC Injury
Center grantees. This section will highlight grantee accomplishments,
provide funding announcements and information, and spotlight other
information helpful to current and potential grantees.
New Funding Announcement Released for Injury Research
Training in Developing Countries
The Fogarty
International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
announces a new program to address the growing burden of morbidity and
mortality in the developing world due to trauma and injury.
Supporting the program are seven NIH partners, CDC's Injury Center, the
Pan American Health Organization, and the World Health Organization. The
program addresses training across the range of basic to applied science,
the epidemiology of risk factors, acute care and survival, rehabilitation,
and long-term mental health consequences. The current combined financial
commitment is approximately $7,000,000 over five years. For the complete
announcement, see the
National Institutes of Health website.
New
Injury Control Research Center Study Links In-Person Driver’s License
Renewal to Lower Death Rates among Older Drivers
States with in-person drivers license renewal laws had a 17% lower
fatality rate among drivers age 85 or older than states without these
laws, found researchers working with CDC Injury Center’s University of
Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Injury Control Research Center. The new
study
is available in the June 16, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA). The study's authors are David C. Grabowski,
PhD, Christine Campbell, and Michael Morrisey, PhD.
Using data from January 1990 through December 2000 collected by the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis
Reporting System, UAB researchers examined motor vehicle fatalities among
older U.S. drivers in conjunction with each state’s license renewal laws.
Researchers also looked at state vision tests, road tests, and frequency
of license renewal policies for older drivers during the 11-year study
period.
The UAB team discovered that the 45 states requiring persons 85 or older
to renew their driver’s licenses in person had a 17% lower fatality rate
than those states that did not require in-person renewal. The study showed
no other factors, including mandated vision testing, road testing, or
increased renewal frequency, were independently associated with a lower
fatality risk.
Dr. Morissey, a health economics professor in the Department of
Health Care Organization and Policy at UAB, said
there may be two reasons in-person renewals resulted in lower fatalities
in older drivers.
“One possibility is that in-person renewal acts as a sort of marker for
self-evaluation, during which the person makes a decision to stop
driving,” said Dr. Morrisey. “Another factor is that in-person renewal
gives an examiner an opportunity to identify potentially impaired
applicants and to require medical evaluation prior to re-licensure.”
Dr. Morrisey explained that the UAB researchers decided to conduct the
study, which was funded partially by CDC's Injury Center and by UAB’s
University Transportation Center for Alabama, because so little was known
about how driver’s licensure laws related to older-driver fatality rates.
“Motor vehicle death rates among older drivers have been steadily
increasing for more than two decades and are projected to account for up
to 25% of total driver deaths by the year 2030,” Dr. Morrisey said. “Elder
driver death rates are reaching that of young teenage males, who have had
the highest death rate in the United States for many years. The effort to
prevent fatalities among older drivers will become more and more important
with each passing year.”
During the study period, there were 4,605 fatalities among drivers age 85
or older in the United States—representing 14% of all motor vehicle
fatalities. In 2000, 45 states had in-person license renewal laws for
older drivers; 40 states required vision tests; and 2 states required road
tests.
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"What's New" Section Highlights Injury Prevention Leaders
This new section draws attention to leaders
in injury prevention and control. In each "What's New" edition, this
section will feature selected injury prevention leaders, spotlighting their interests and
accomplishments. Leaders may be from CDC's Injury Center or an Injury
Center grantee. To nominate a leader for this
section, please send an e-mail to
ohcinfo@cdc.gov. Please include the following information:
- Name of the nominee
- Brief description (2-3 paragraphs) of
the nominee's background, interests, and accomplishments in injury
prevention
- Headshot photo of the nominee, if
available (preferably in JPEG format)
- Nominee phone number and e-mail
address.
Len Paulozzi, MD, MPH, Advances Injury Surveillance
Len Paulozzi, MD, MPH, is a medical
epidemiologist who began working in public health in 1983 as an Epidemic
Intelligence Service officer for CDC. He subsequently worked for
eight years in state health departments as an epidemiologist, focusing on
injuries and chronic diseases. He returned to Atlanta in 1993 and shortly
thereafter became the director of the CDC’s Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital
Defects program, an active, population-based surveillance system for
congenital anomalies. He joined the Division of Violence Prevention of
CDC's Injury Center in 2000, where he worked primarily on the National
Violent Death Reporting System.
This month, Dr. Paulozzi joined the
Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. As a medical epidemiologist
with the Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention Team, his work will focus
primarily on pedestrian safety.
“I feel lucky to be able to work in a
Center with such great statistical, programming, IT, and administrative
support," said Paulozzi, "It is a great place to do epidemiology."
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3rd National Sexual Violence Prevention Conference Draws More than 1200
People
More than 1200 people attended the 3rd
National Sexual Violence Prevention Conference, “Building Leadership and
Commitment to End Sexual Violence,” held May 26-28, 2004, in Los Angeles,
CA. The conference brought together local, state,
federal, and private sector researchers, practitioners, and advocates to
address a challenging range of topics. Topics included sex trafficking, working with men
and boys, building leadership among women of color, managing sex offenders
in the community, and addressing sexual assault in the sexual minority
community.
The conference introduced new, intensive three-hour institutes that
allowed participants to explore issues in-depth. Activities also included
plenary sessions, breakout workshops, government showcases, poster
presentations, a welcome reception, exhibit hall, and artwork displaying the
healing power of the human heart. A special highlight was the
theatrical presentation by Terrylene on sexual violence in the deaf
community.
CDC's Injury Center sponsored the
conference in collaboration with the California Coalition Against Sexual
Assault, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the U.S.
Department of Justice. The Injury Center thanks everyone who contributed
to the conference's success through their planning efforts and
participation.
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