NEW YORK (May 13, 2008) - After completing a yearlong asthma education program, 45 families are graduating from the MCAN WIN for Asthma program with the tools they need to control their child’s asthma, preventing acute episodes that can lead to emergency room visits and missed school days. WIN for Asthma reports that among the first group of graduates, hospitalizations were reduced by 85 percent, emergency room visits by 66 percent, and the number of missed school days was lowered by 42 percent.
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.
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.
>> click here for the webcast
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.
>> click here for photo
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