Primary Care Progress-Vassar Chapter

04/09/2019

"This year, Vassar’s chapter of Primary Care Progress (P*P) has been building a website that consolidates health resources for students. Many of these resources are already available on campus: from the nutritionist working for the dining service to the safer s*x supplies provided by C.H.O.I.C.E. But there are also important resources that can only be found off campus, such as HIV prophylaxis provided by Hudson River Healthcare (HRH) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) from Planned Parenthood. Previously, this information has been spread out across various websites and pamphlets. Our goal has been to vet and compile all of this valuable information in a way that is centralized and accessible."

-Sam Greenwald

The website is still a work in progress, and we’d love your feedback. You can get in touch with us using the feature at the bottom of the homepage, or send an email to p*[email protected]

Providing students with the tools to make their own healthy decisions, and challenging them to become active participants in their health and wellness.

02/27/2017

Vassar Behavioral Health Dataset!! See more details below to get involved :))

Thanks to those who could make it to last week's meeting! We looked through the Executive Summary of Vassar's Student Health Survey from 2016. This is a nationally-based college health assessment that the administration conducts every 2 years. The Office of Health Ed, Baldwin and Metcalf were nice enough to give us this data and are interested in collabing with us on student health projects! Our goal is to use this data--and maybe collect some of our own--to enact student-driven change on campus.

Here are the project topics we will be focusing on for the rest of the semester, with a brief description of our goals for each:

Q***r Health (with VQHI)
A collaboration with Vassar Q***r Health Initiative! More details and goals to be decided

Living Environments
In the Living Environment team, we'll be analyzing dormitory circumstances to see how they impact students' health and allergies. We'll focus on everything from students' respective houses to minute habits unique to each individual. If you're curious about which houses may be prone to certain illnesses or behaviors, then feel free to join the Living Environment team!

Comparative Policies - Alcohol and To***co on Vassar's Campus
Heard of the keg ban? What was Vassar like before SmokeFree VC? In the comparative policies group, we'll look at how alcohol and to***co use have changed on campus from policies such as these. What is the perceived use of alcohol and to***co on campus? How might use of these substances affect student stress levels, sleep, academics, etc?

If you're interested in getting involved, please fill out the google form below! Select with topic(s) you'd like to help out with, even if you can't come to our weekly meetings (Thurs. 4:30-5:30pm)! Once we have a better idea of who is interested in what we'll set up subcommittee meeting times to hash out the details and really work through the data.

Here's the google form!!!!
https://docs.google.com/a/vassar.edu/forms/d/1CuyMy6r5RQliPTy466Gqtjy_RHQU6iS6hPKmD05Zqjo/edit

Happy Sunday

01/18/2017

The coming years will present us with a far larger concern, however. In this era of advancing information, it will become evident that, for everyone, life is a preexisting condition waiting to happen... This is a problem for our health-care system. It doesn’t put great value on care that takes time to pay off. But this is also an opportunity. We have the chance to transform the course of our lives.

Great read from a great author.

We devote vast resources to intensive, one-off procedures, while starving the kind of steady, intimate care that often helps people more.

09/24/2016

https://www.buzzfeed.com/liamlowery/why-no-one-calls-me-fat-anymore?utm_term=.mrv2DY83o6 #.ygmqpLw0r2

After doctors started reading me as male, my size was still the same — but my obesity was cured.

09/12/2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opinion/passing-my-disability-on-to-my-children.html?WT.mc_id=2016-SEPT-FB-PropTestHighMC9-AUD_DEV-0908&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVGate

I did not choose to have “designer babies,” and I do not regret it.

09/07/2016

COME TO OUR FIRST MEETING TONIGHT AT 7pm IN ROCKY 304

we'll be discussing what P*P is all about & talking zika

ALSO BROWNIES YUM

09/03/2016

recruiting people for P*P at activities fair !!

08/04/2016

"The ACA is still a critical tool for providing necessary services for people with behavioral-health disorders and for helping close the racial disparities within that group. It removes the first and most obvious barriers for many potential patients, setting the stage for what Creedon and Cook characterize as 'further attention on the unique access barriers confronting racial/ethnic minorities.' But these results are perhaps another reminder that making health care more equitable is a continuing process."

Obamacare is providing unprecedented access to treatment, but it’s failed to narrow disparities between white and black patients.

08/01/2016

Check out this blog post from Bob Doughty from the American College of Physicians about the promising future of primary care in America.

If you're looking for more news on HEALTH POLICY sign up for this daily newsletter: http://www.americanhealthline.com/blog

Bob Doherty reflects on what's in store for the future of primary care

06/27/2016

http://time.com/4383586/abortion-supreme-court-ruling-texas/

The Supreme Court struck down two key abortion restrictions Monday, redefining the scope of Roe v. Wade in what many consider to be the most…

06/24/2016

What is the role of precision genomics in primary care? These authors argue it should play a large role in the treatment of youth exposed to lead from their drinking water in Flint, Michigan.

Genetic variance can drastically affect the degree of lead toxicity in children, and genomic frequencies of African American children have suggested increased rates of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) predisposing them to higher degree of lead toxicity from smaller amounts of lead contamination. So even kids with lead levels below the clinical threshold can still be at risk of lead associated illnesses, suggesting the primary care efforts treating those affected by this crisis might be missing a number of patients who need treatment.

http://www.nature.com/articles/npjgenmed201618

It has been well established that lead poisoning, as defined by the CDC as blood lead levels (BLLs) at or above 5 μg/dl, can lead to long-term neurotoxic effects in children and requires immediate treatment.

04/25/2016

"Since 2011, more than half of U.S. states have restricted access to abortions. And yet, while abortion is perennially in the news, the experiences of real women are too often overlooked."

Two documentaries at the Tribeca Film Festival look at abortion in a new light.