MCAN NAB Member Kevin Weiss Appointed President and CEO of American Board of Medical Specialties

American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the pre-eminent entity overseeing the certification of physician specialists in the United States, announced at its Interim Assembly Meeting today that its Board of Directors has appointed Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH, as the organization's new president and chief executive officer. Weiss will take up his new duties Dec. 17, 2007, and will join ABMS' Board of Directors.

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MCAN Convenes Joint Annual Meeting of Program Sites and National Advisory Board 

The Merck Childhood Asthma Network convened its Annual Meeting of Program Sites and the MCAN National Advisory Board  in New Orleans, LA, April 25-27, 2007.  This meeting was a wonderful opportunity for these two important groups to meet, exchange ideas and network.  MCAN Sites presented overviews of their community-based MCAN projects and updates on their progress.  MCAN National Advisory Board (NAB) members provided guidance on troubleshooting common challenges and offered their expertise on best practices.

 HHS Secretary Leavitt Summons National Leaders to Explore Public Private Partnerships to Reduce Health Disparities

MCAN's Floyd Malveaux, was one of a small group of private sector executives who met with Secretary Mike Leavitt at his invitation to discuss forming public-private partnerships to advance key issues and opportunities for improving minority health and closing the health gap. The meeting took place against the backdrop of the National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health on January 9-11, 2006 in Washington, DC.

MCAN made its debut at the Summit as an important new player in the field focused on childhood asthma. In addition to the meeting with Secretary Leavitt, Dr. Malveaux addressed over 2000 meeting attendees and was a key discussant in the Town Hall Meeting.

As a sponsor of the National Commemorative Event during the Summit, MCAN staff was joined by MCAN Trustee, Richard Murray. Also present was Leslie Hardy, Director of Corporate Contributions, Merck & Co. The event celebrated the 20 year anniversary of the HHS Office of Minority Health with thousands who had gathered from all parts of the US to attend the meeting. A webcast of the 2006 Summit is available. Dr. Malveaux's presentation was on January 11 during the National Health Disparities Town Hall Meeting, Topic 3 - Establishing a New National Strategy.

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MCAN Convenes First Annual Meeting of Program Site Leaders

Childhood asthma health professionals and researchers from the five MCAN Program Sites in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Puerto Rico assembled in Washington, DC on April 23-25, 2006 for the first Annual Meeting of MCAN Program Site Leaders. The focus of this landmark event was threefold:

1) review program plans and implementation status;

2) share methods and approaches;

3) develop a framework for the cross-site evaluation that will be conducted by RTI International.

The RTI evaluation team led a workshop during the meeting and are preparing a plan based on the workshop outcomes. MCAN staff introduced the new website and exchanged ideas with attendees on design and content as well as additional technical resources that would be helpful to them and the field in general.

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