By: Gabe Gan
Dr. Koo, who serves as the Senior Advisor for Health Systems in the Office of Public Health Scientific Services (OPHSS), shared her personal story and journey from scientist, to physician, to public health practitioner. She outlined some of her key accomplishments at CDC, including working on the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, writing privacy rule guidance (HIPPA), and developing “A Practical Playbook—Public Health and Primary Care Together.” While her primary training is in epidemiology, Dr. Koo discussed her current focus on health systems transformation and its importance. Lastly, Dr. Koo highlighted the changing nature of public health and the directions she predicts the field taking in upcoming years.
At the conference, I presented on Mobile Integrated Healthcare, a concept that I am passionate about and discovered during my summer internship. Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH), also known as community paramedicine when delivered by an EMS system, serves a wide range of patients in the out-of-hospital setting by providing 24/7 needs-based at-home integrated acute care, chronic care and prevention services. My presentation, entitled “Mobile Integrated Healthcare: The evolving role of EMTs and Paramedics in community health,” shared an overview of the problems with the U.S. emergency care system and benefits of implementing community paramedicine programs on both cost and quality of care. After presenting the general principals and components of Mobile Integrated Health, I profiled two notable MIH programs: the CHF Readmissions Prevention Program at MedStar Mobile Healthcare in Fort Worth, TX and the Mobile Upstream Crisis Intervention Unit out of Grady EMS in Atlanta.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed my experience at the conference. In addition to furthering my knowledge of public health topics, I relished the opportunity to meet students interested in health from other schools nearby in the metro Atlanta area. I look forward to presenting again next year, and hope that more students and faculty members from the Center for the Study of Human Health will participate in this amazing opportunity.