Meeting Summary: July 31, 2003

Chair:  Paula Armbruster   Vice-Chair:  Mikki Meadows

Department of Public Health Update

Obesity Prevention Grant

Sharon Mierzwa provided a summary of the federally- funded statewide obesity prevention and control program.  This funding phase is drawing to a close; however the DPH is applying to HHS for participation in the ‘Steps to a Healthier US’ grant of $17.4M over 5 years.  This grant could target asthma, diabetes, obesity prevention and tobacco use.  The current grant funds two obesity pilots in East Hartford and Ledyard.  In addition to the HHS grant, the DPH is looking to foundation support for obesity prevention initiatives.  Obesity focused activities continue:

• In August, the DPH website will include obesity prevention information & act as a clearinghouse for community-based, health department, academia, practitioner obesity initiatives.
• Several conferences in the Fall:
• Fall 2003 – continuing education program for health providers on the prevention & management of adult overweight/obesity. Contact Sharon Mierzwa (509-7802).
• October 8 – Joint DPH/CT Nutrition conference for local health dept, nutritional & other health professionals on obesity prevention & current initiatives in CT. at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. 
• October 9 - DPH/Dept of Education in-service for school nurses, SBHC staff on prevention and management of childhood overweight/obesity at the Rocky Hill Marriott.

Dr. Kamens commended DPH for the statewide obesity action plan that has time frames and expected outcomes.  Ms. Mierzwa stated that there is a need to develop a statewide obesity surveillance system.

Asthma & Lead

Renee Coleman-Mitchell offered an overview of the DPH statewide asthma initiatives:

• Asthma education program that includes a resource manual for school RN’s, certification for child care facility staff to provide asthma meds for children.
• Provider feedback on the Asthma Action plan through focus groups will  result in revision of the form late Fall 2003.
• An adolescent asthma toolbox is being developed.
• Asthma surveillance initiatives in progress:
• DPH will assess mortality data for asthma related deaths for children <2 years.
• Add questions about asthma to the children’s health survey that will be given in middle and high schools in place of the youth risk survey.
• Introduce a 10-minute asthma video program to schools that have a school RN; the child can respond to vignettes of asthma symptoms – aggregate data will be given to DPH.
• Include asthma information on all state mandated physicals with aggregate data to DPH.

The Statewide asthma task force recommendations will be forthcoming.  The statewide approach may use the bio-terrorism model applied to 10 state regions that will include partnering with local health departments to explain the plan, hold community meeting to explain the asthma plan during September 03-February 04.

Lead

• The Lead Surveillance data conversion system will be available in October that will allow data matching with DSS. 
• Mary Lou Fleissner reported that CT is participating in the CDC national tracking system for environmental health with DEP/DPH data through NESCON data aggregation system.
• The Childhood Lead Centers at Yale and St. Francis Hospital ‘healthy homes’ initiative have added asthma to the lead program.  The DPH has submitted a grant to support this in-home environmental approach.  The initial Healthy Homes grant period is completed.

Ms Coleman-Mitchell stated that Council/subcommittee members might be interested in participating in the Lead Task Force; the soon-to-be reconvened lead screening committee and/or the asthma surveillance committee.  Interested individuals may contact Ms. Coleman-Mitchell at (860) 509-7730 for further information.

HUSKY Obesity Matrix

The information provided by the health plans was reviewed; several suggestions were made:

• Wait until early September to send this out, when the DSS/MCO contract process is complete.  Health Net will check on the CPT code/application to individual and/or group sessions.
• Sharon Mierzwa suggested working with the CT Dietetic Association to disseminate the information. Qualidigm is working with DPH on a chart abstraction projection focused on obesity.
• Cheryl Hanley Munoz stated she would bring the completed matrix to a clinical issue meeting of the CT Primary Care Association (CPCA) meeting.
• The matrix will include a cover letter highlighting the similarities and differences among MCO coverage.
• The Obesity work group will be re-convened in September to identify next-steps (i.e. assessing prevalence in HUSKY, clinical evaluation guidelines).  Karen Dorsey, MD, Yale University, has been working on obesity studies and is currently a policy fellow with the Child Health & Development Institute of CT (CHDI) as well as a member of the CT AAP obesity task force.  Dr. Dorsey is interested in working with the Medicaid Council & subcommittee.

Updates

Department of Social Services:  The DSS and DPH are near completion on the data sharing MOU, will meet with the QA chair/vice-chair to identify quality priorities.

Children’s Health Council:  Mary Alice Lee reported that the funding for this group has been eliminated from the state budget, passed by the House (& by the Senate).  The subcommittee participants expressed concern as well as support for the work of the CHC and the valuable studies produced.  It was agreed that, with the approval of the Council Chair (Sen. Toni Harp) and the QA subcommittee chair/vice-chair, a letter would be drafted to DSS about the DSS plans for quality monitoring in the HUSKY program.  The MCOs will continue to report utilization data to DSS, which will be reported to Medicaid Council & the MCOs all have disease management programs.

Ø      The QA subcommittee will meet Thursday 9/18 at 10:30 AM in LOB RM 2A.  The Obesity work group date TBA.