Are you concerned about the state of the U.S. public health system? Do you want to work with others to figure out a new way forward?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world, it has demonstrated the importance of a robust public health system, one that is ready to respond in times of crisis as well as supporting the foundations of a healthy society. The 2021 Salk Health Activist Fellowship will focus emerging activists on re-envisioning public health in America to address our current dismal state of health. While COVID-19 has exposed problems in our healthcare infrastructure, it is only one of a multitude of problems that need to be addressed. Now is the opportunity to look across disciplines to create a renewed vision of public health and create lasting change.

During the 9-week program, Fellows will learn from regional and national experts, past public health initiatives, and work in multidisciplinary teams to bring fresh solutions to the challenges facing public health in the U.S. Fellows will gain insights into the existing U.S. public health system, behavioral science principles, and how technology can be incorporated to foment change. Fellows will expand their ideas on health, exploring what health means to U.S. communities, as they work toward outside-the-box solutions that re-envision a new approach to public health. Utilizing the framework of design-thinking, they will synthesize their experiences to propose an innovative idea to a current public health challenge within either a local, statewide, or national context.

The Patient Safety Fellowship is a dynamic educational program of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, and Health Careers Futures.

The Fellowship aims to foster the healthcare leaders of tomorrow—leaders who respond to rapid change and discovery, apply an interdisciplinary approach, and strive to continually improve health care and patient safety.

This summer, the Fellowship is focusing on the overall response to COVID-19 in the U.S.. Over the course of the 9-week program, fellows will engage with a variety of expert speakers in the fields of public health, infectious disease, safety science, and emergency preparedness, as well as leaders of healthcare systems and local innovators adapting to the crisis. As the fellows engage with one another and gain insight from the different lens of the pandemic, they will synthesize their lessons and apply them in designing a response to a case study/scenario of a healthcare outbreak or disaster.

The home for the 2019 Salk Health Activist Fellowship.

We are going to use this platform to be able to communicate effectively, collaborate, and build each other up for this fellowship. Activism starts here. Let us learn and use each other's strengths to the best of our ability. 

Together, we can change the world. 

Achieve the Triple Aim of healthcare quality improvement by providing patients with the information  on their care plans but encouraging them to ask “why?” In regards to physician orders. Additionally, encourage providers to be smarter with the care plans created for their patients by thinking more critically about what they are ordering.  

Pittsbrugh Air Quality is continually ranked one of the worst in the nation. Allegheny County ranks in the top 2 percent in cancer risks from air pollution and Pittsburgh's childhood asthma rates are higher than the national average (22% compared to 8%). High asthma rates keep kids out of school, impacts learning and overall wellbeing. 

The goal of this group is two-fold;

1. To implement the Air Quality Flag Program into Pittsburgh-area schools. This program utilizes the EPA's Air Quality Index to report on air quality conditions using a flag color system. When air quality is unhealthy, people can take actions to reduce exposure to air pollution. 

2. School-wide health surverys to monitor asthma symptoms on bad or unhealthy air quality days compared to good air days. This will allow collection of data from many children to correllate air quality to asthma prevlance. 

Pregnant women, no matter their socioeconomic status, should have equal rights and access to the best care. We hope to narrow down the potential causes of increased mortality rates and design unique solutions to address gaps in quality and access to care. 

The home for the 2018 Salk Health Activist Fellowship.

We are going to use this platform to be able to communicate effectively, collaborate, and build each other up for this fellowship. Activism starts here. Let us learn and use each other's strengths to the best of our ability. 

Together, we can change the world. 

According to the Healthy People 2020 Midcourse Review (2016), only 21.3% of American adults meet the minimum physical activity (PA) guideline recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity per week.  The vision of this action group is to become an advocate for prevention and wellness in health care.  This would involve a cultural shift from a reactive intervention based system to a proactive prevention based system.  This shift would prioritize maintaining an individual's independence and quality of life across the lifespan through minimizing sedentary activities and optimizing physical activity.  

Vitiligo (vit-ih-LIE-go) is a disease that causes the loss of skin color in blotches. The extent and rate of color loss from vitiligo is unpredictable. It can affect the skin on any part of your body. It may also affect hair and the inside of the mouth. The main reason and cause of vitiligo is the fact that the body itself decides to destroy its skin pigment. Without a doubt, this is an irregularity of the system. However, the main culprit for this setback is the immune system. Doctors currently can’t predict whether the Vitiligo on a person will spread, and  how fast. Currently, there is no known cure for Vitiligo, but treatment may be able to make skin tone appear more even. However, treatments can be time consuming and expensive, and often not covered by health insurance.  Because Vitiligo affects a person’s appearance, it is considered as a “cosmetic problem.” However, it is more than a “cosmetic problem.” It is a medical condition. People who have Vitiligo have a higher risk of getting some other medical conditions – such as hearing loss; painful sunburns; develop other autoimmune diseases; changes in vision/eye problems; anxiety and depression. Vitiligo is not contagious, and it is not life threatening. However, it is life-altering. Some people develop low self-esteem. They may no longer want to hang out with friends. They can develop serious depression. Most people have Vitiligo for life, so it’s important to develop coping strategies. Researchers have found that many people who have vitiligo often feel anxious and embarrassed around others. It’s easy to understand why. People often stare and make rude remarks. Some people are obviously frightened. Facing this day in and day out can take a toll on a person’s overall wellbeing. 

Vision: 

- Raise awareness about vitiligo and the dermatological and psychological impact the disease has on those affected by it.

- Partner with healthcare professionals, educational institutions and social workers and activists to work diligently toward securing grant funding and increase sponsors and donors.

- Encourage governmental agencies to make vitiligo research and advocacy efforts a high priority.

- Improve the care of patients with vitiligo by providing medical professionals with the best available information about vitiligo and its treatment.

- Improve teacher and staff training in schools so they are prepared to provide support to parents and students cope with this disease. 

The World Health Organization defines The Social Determinates of Health (SDH) as the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age, along with the systems put in place to deal with illness. These are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces that include the local environment, economics, education, social and community context, and access to healthcare.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we know that poverty limits access to healthy foods and safe neighborhoods and that more education is a predictor of better health. We also know that differences in health are striking in communities with poor SDOH such as unstable housing, low income, unsafe neighborhoods, or substandard education. By applying what we know about SDOH, we can not only improve individual and population health but also advance health equity.

Addressing these factors are vital to improve the overall health of the population. The SDH are ultimately influenced by the money, power, and resources at the local, state, and international level which has a large influence in health inequities.

Educating health professionals about the social determinants of health generates awareness among those professionals about the potential root causes of ill health and the importance of addressing them in and with communities, contributing to more effective strategies for improving health and health care for underserved individuals, communities, and populations.

About Addiction is committed to challenging harmful stereotypes surrounding addiction and recovery. In today's world, "the addict" is often depicted as someone who is lazy, weak-willed, and even dangerous to our communities. Individuals battling substance use disorders are consistently portrayed in this inaccurate and unfair light, leaving many stranded in a world of overwhelming stigma and cyclic abuse. 

The reality of addiction is that it knows no boundaries. Addiction affects people from all walks of life, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Addiction is not a lack of moral judgment, nor is it a lack of willpower. Addiction is a mental illness, a heavily-researched disruption of the body's normal physiological processes.

We, as a nation, are currently facing an epidemic of prescription drug misuse, abuse, and addiction. The number of Americans battling substance use disorders is growing exponentially, with over 100 lives lost to drug overdoses every single day. 

Thankfully, we are beginning to see increased recognition and concern for this problem. Across the nation, communities are mobilizing to create new resources for treatment and recovery. But all of these efforts can only do so much good if we continue to allow harsh and inaccurate stereotypes to propogate. It is paramount that while we continue to build these resources, we simultaneously shift public opinion about addiction away from judgment and discomfort and toward understanding, support, and acceptance. 

About Addiction believes that we must create a world where individuals with substance use disorders are first recognized for who they truly are: human beings, each unique and valuable, who have fallen on difficult times. We must make a conscious effort to learn and to understand the process of this disease and how we can help those affected. We must support our neighbors in their recovery, both short- and long-term, and empower them to re-build their lives and pursue healthy, successful futures. Re-shaping perspectives of addiction is truly the first step on the road to recovery.  

"On Drugs" is a podcast where people will talk about everything related to drugs. Their experience with drugs, addiction, treatment, benefits, harms, research, drug policy, and anything else we can think of it in the future.

The goal of this podcast is to de-stigmatize this topic, to expose those who know nothing about the topic, and to put a human face and human voice to the stories we all hear about drugs.

Before we can tackle the question of what our relationship with drugs should be, we need to bring it out of the shadows, to see it for what it is, and to talk about it, openly and honestly.

There is only one problem that has affected every person who has ever lived on Earth, and it is the last one any of us ever face.

Americans have a unique problem with death: it's not simply that we don't know how to talk about it, it's that we largely refuse to talk about it at all or engage with the concepts and realities of our only truly unifying experience.  Healthcare providers feel they are failing if they even consider the topic of end of life conversations.  Popular culture debases our understanding of death by portraying it in every conceivable way other than the one in which we actually experience it. Only through preparation, understanding, and normalization can we improve end of life and the grieving and bereavement process of those we leave behind.

A popular modern author wrote: If you have ever lost a loved one, then you know exactly how it feels.  And if you have not, then you cannot possibly imagine it.

If loss is so universal, why do we not make it a priority to better prepare ourselves to face it?

That is the goal of this Action Group: to face the problem of illiteracy on the topics of death, grief, and bereavement with supportive materials that can be distributed or shared by anybody, in any forum, at any stage of life or in any setting of healthcare.

We have record high numbers of people in Pittsburgh that do not have adequate access to health care services. Conservatively 20% of Pittsburgh neighbors are living below the poverty line. Sadly, Pittsburgh is above the national average for metropolitan cities. Transportation and cost are barriers to even the most basic medical care as health systems in these less fortunate areas continue to close and relocate to more affluent suburban locations.

Our goal is to close the health insurance coverage gap by providing health care free of charge for Pittsburgh’s underserved population in our neighborhoods.

The use of medical “pop-up” clinics strive to fill in the “health insurance coverage gap” in providing health care to meet the immediate needs of patients. In addition, “pop-up” clinics provide quality health care and are instrumental in connecting patients to much needed access to preventive services, disease management services, dental, vision, health education, and resources.

The West Virginia Partnership for Health Innovation (WVPHI) is a non-profit called for by the West Virginia State Innovation Model plan to catalyze health care improvement in West Virginia. WVPHI is available as a resource to assist Governor Jim Justice, the state legislature and state agencies—namely the Department of Health and Human Resources and PEIA—as they evaluate and develop policies for health care transformation. The mission of WVPHI is to assist the state, particularly, in moving it toward a health care system that is value-based. A value-based health care system is one where there is a commitment to achieving three key outcomes: better quality of care, lower overall costs and better population health outcomes.

Value-based health care is a key way to improve West Virginia's terrible population health status. Until the state's population health improves, West Virginia cannot hope to achieve economic diversity and vitality.

The flu is a common disease, affecting all ages, which can lead to serious illness and even death. Many people percieve the flu as something similar to a cold: It's not going to kill me. I'll be fine. I don't need my flu shot. Faces of the Flu allows people to tell their flu stories to show others how bad the disease can really be. Through this project, Faces of the Flu aims to increase the utilization of flu shots to prevent further morbidity and mortality from influenza.

Research has shown that African American women are one of the most sedentary groups of people. This is problematic because inadequate exercise along with a poor diet can contribute to medical issues, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, and others. Our organization seeks to promote activity, a healthy diet, and lifestyle changes among African American women. We hope to improve health outcomes and quality of life.

We are going to use this platform to be able to communicate effectively, collaborate, and build each other up for this fellowship. Activism satrts here, let us learn and use each other's strengths to the best of our ability. 

We are here to help, and are open to any and all questions that you may possess. If we don't know the answer, we will do our best to find someone who does. Together, we can change the world.