Dr. Wheat in Leadership Roles in National Agrimedicine Groups
News Releases from UA on Rural Health Topics
Contact: Linda Jackson, (205) 348-1302
May 1, 1999
John Wheat, MD, Associate Professor of Community Medicine and Internal Medicine at The University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences, is President of the North American Agromedicine Consortium. He has also participated in strategic planning for rural health and safety with The Southern Extension/Research Activity Information Exchange Group and the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State, leading the discussion to assign timelines and designate responsibilities for addressing health issues in the rural South over the three-year period beginning in 1998.
Representing the interests of agromedicine and rural communities, Dr. Wheat is a member of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation's (NEETF) new work group on educating health care providers about pesticide exposures. Dr. Wheat will be working with the group to build on federal recommendations for improving the practice of primary care providers in preventing, diagnosing, treating, and referring patients exposed to pesticides.
The "Initiative on Pesticides and National Strategies
for Health Care Providers" will develop a national implementation
plan for pesticide education with practicing health care providers.
The strategic plan will set competencies, recommend methodologies,
identify target audience(s), and project timelines for the initiative.
The work group is multidisciplinary and includes federal officials
as well as repre- sentatives from key organizations and institutions
in the field.
Dr. Wheat chaired the spring meeting of the North American
Agromedicine Consortium in April (1999). The meeting,
held in Nebraska, was the catalyst for a cooperative initiative
there to create a state agromedicine program. The
Agromedicine Consortium, a bureau of the International Association
of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health, is a forum for physicians
and other health care providers, veterinarians, university researchers,
Extension and other educators, government officials, agribusiness
representatives, and rural residents in the United States, Canada,
and Mexico to exchange information about agricultural health and
safety. The Consortium's Annual Meeting will be held in
Raleigh, North Carolina, September 25-28, 1999. Papers and
presentations on related topics are being sought. See announcement
below.
CALL FOR PAPERS North American Agromedicine Consortium
All aspects of Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety
in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries are invited including:
exposure assessment, injury/illness surveillance, prevention/intervention
(educational, engineering, or behavioral approaches), health care
access/ delivery, susceptible populations, community health, and
diagnosis and treatment. Abstracts due August 6.
Cash awards for the best student platform and poster presentation.
For more information, contact: Gregory Cope, North Carolina
State University, (919) 515-7169. e-mail: greg_cope@ncsu.edu
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