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AAPA supports funding for global HIV/AIDS fight

By Janette Rodrigues, reporter, AAPA News

AAPA has expressed support for federal legislation known as the Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. The measure would provide $50 billion over 5 years in the global fight against these diseases. It would also help train 140,000 new health care workers and turn the emergency aid program into a long-term, sustainable one. News of AAPA’s support was shared with leading national and international AIDS organizations by Bill Leinweber, AAPA executive vice president/CEO, as a way to demonstrate the PA profession’s worldwide concern for access to care.

AAPA backs national and international efforts regarding

Development of prevention strategies, including voluntary counseling and testing programs, those to prevent mother-to-child transmission, and programs with special focus on young adults
Expanding treatment programs that provide life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy and are sustainable
Creation of an HIV/AIDS corps of trained medical providers to augment the training of qualified staff for prevention and treatment efforts in developing countries
Providing financial support to global AIDS funding efforts, without ideological or political influence on the distribution of monies.

National e-prescribing awareness campaign launched

By Michael Ellwood, PA-C, director, special projects

AAPA and a diverse partnership of pharmacies, consumer organizations, business groups, and other health care organizations, coordinated by SureScripts, announced in April a nationwide consumer awareness campaign to support electronic prescribing. Through a public awareness effort, including media, in-store signage, and patient educational materials, the campaign seeks to inform patients about the benefits of e-prescribing and encourages them to discuss it with their health care providers.

The campaign hopes to alert consumers to the e-prescribing capabilities of thousands of independent and national chain pharmacies. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality National Resource Center for Health IT reported in 2007 that more than 95% of the nation’s retail pharmacies are connected to networks that can receive and exchange prescription information.

The campaign highlights the convenience to consumers of e-prescribing and features signs on pharmacy doors and counters saying “e-prescriptions filled here” and “Give prescription a head start.” The campaign Web site, www.LearnAboutEprescriptions.com, educates patients about the benefits of e-prescribing and helps them identify local pharmacies that accept e-prescriptions. According to SureScripts’ National Progress Report on E-Prescribing, approximately 35 million prescriptions were transmitted electronically by 36,000 prescribers in 2007. The number is expected to almost triple in 2008.

PA Foundation, Chevron launch Global PArtners

Doug Scott, reporter, AAPA News

Imagine a situation in the United States or abroad in which one-third of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS and a PA-led team responds with resources to collaborate with the existing health system on training local health providers to deal with the deadly disease. Or imagine a PA-led team that works with local clinicians in a foreign country to offer a medical training course on basic health care and disease prevention. Or, in the aftermath of a natural disaster, a PA-led team arrives to provide support to rebuild the medical infrastructure.

Scenarios like these will be part of a long-term strategy developed by the PA Foundation and the Chevron Corporation to build sustainable programs and to increase the capacity of indigenous populations to meet their own health care needs. The goal of this unique partnership will be to increase appropriate and accessible community-based health care in settings where all parties contribute and all benefit.

In April, the PA Foundation formed a collaboration with Chevron that will bring health care education and clinical care to underserved communities, both nationally and internationally. Chevron will identify unmet health care needs of a community and volunteer PAs, identified through the PA Foundation, will provide the training and resources to local health care providers over a 2- to 4-week period. In future years, the PA Foundation hopes to attract additional corporate sponsors to the program.

INFORMATION ON UPCOMING CME EVENTS For the most up-to-date list of CME opportunities, visit the AAPA Web site at www.aapa.org/cme/approvedcat1.htm