Chair: Neal Kohatsu                                                                            Staff: Jessica Cafarella

Vice Chair: Linda Kinsinger

Since its report to the Board in May 2001, the ACPM Prevention Practice Committee has focused on: (1) conducting an interim conference call to discuss high priority Committee issues; (2) updating the list of statements currently under development; (3) working with AJPM to refine the review and publication of all ACPM statements; (4) writing the first ACPM position statement, which is on handgun injury; and (5) developing the first patient education statement on cardiovascular disease. Current activities and upcoming plans in these areas are outlined below.

The Prevention Practice Committee held a conference call on June 7, 2001 in which ten Committee members participated. Committee staff provided an update on ACPM policy statements and patient education statements. The Committee then discussed the ACPM position statement in progress (Preventing Handgun Injury) and topics for future statements. Neal Kohatsu gave an overview of the June 1 American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) editorial meeting, in which ACPM participated.

ACPM staff worked with the Committee leadership to update the list of statements currently under development. Staff contacted each prospective author in order to expedite statement development or officially cease work on the topic. The updated list of current statements is as follows:

Topic                                                                       Author

Practice Policies
Vitamin A Supplementation                                            Nawaz, Katz
Counseling Children/Adolescents on Osteoporsis                Fleming, Almeida, Patrick
Screening for Chlamydia Trachomatis                              Hollblad-Fadiman, Goldman
Hepatitis A Vaccination                                                Kinsinger, Richards


Public Policies
Newborn Hearing Screening                                            Clark, Kravitz
PPD Screening of Screening of School Children                   Chang
Domestic Violence                                                        Seid
ECP as an OTC Medication                                             Howe, Hill, Doshi, Neely
Adolescent sexuality education in schools                         Masui

Position Statements
Handgun Injury                                                            Armstrong, Sudbay

Revisions
Adult Immunizations                                                      Fingar, Francis
Childhood Immunizations                                                Adetunji, Macklin, Kinsinger

ACPM staff and leadership participated in the June 1^st AJPM editorial meeting. Topics discussed included: 1) educating AJPM reviewers about the purpose and design of ACPM statements in order to minimize conflict between AJPM and ACPM comments on guidelines; 2) publication of ACPM position statements in AJPM; and 3) publication of abstracts from Preventive Medicine 2002 in AJPM.

Since the meeting, ACPM staff have worked with AJPM to develop information for distribution to AJPM reviewers when evaluating an ACPM guideline. This information was distributed for the first time in October 2001 with the Screening for Chlamydia Trachomatis guideline. ACPM and AJPM also have continued to discuss the publication of ACPM position statements, namely the statement in progress, Handgun Injury.

At the February 2001 meeting of the ACPM Board of Regents, the Board approved a statement on handgun injury that ACPM had developed in conjunction with the Doctors Against Handgun Injury (DAHI) Coalition. The Board resolved, however, that ACPM should develop a separate statement on handgun injury and control that takes a stronger stance than the DAHI statement.

The Prevention Practice Committee has coordinated development of this statement, which was authored by Committee member Christopher Armstrong in conjunction with handgun expert Joseph Sudbay. A draft of the statement was reviewed by Committee leadership in April and the Prevention Practice Committee in June. The draft statement currently is being reviewed by the Policy Committee, and it will be sent to the Board for approval later this year.

Development of ACPM’s second patient education statement, Preventing Heart Disease: The Importance of Physical Activity, stalled in late July when Medem informed ACPM that it would no longer be able to assist the College with the development of patient education statements. The Committee will be discussing how/whether to proceed without Medem during its October 2001 in-person meeting.

At its October 2001 in-person meeting, the Committee will be discussing many topics, including the following:

• Simplifying statement terminology
• Recommended topics for future statements
• Patient education articles
• Creation of an updated membership list
• Committee website
• Maintenance of policy

The practice policy statement Weight Management Counseling of Overweight Adults, written by David Katz and Haq Nawaz of Yale University/Griffin Hospital, was published in the July issue of AJPM.

The submission of the practice policy statement Screening for H. pylori in High Risk Groups was withdrawn from AJPM in September, since the authors have been unable to submit a redraft to the Journal for almost two years.