Correctional health conference links best practice to best evidence 
Commonwealth Medicine to host the 4th annual Academic & Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health
By Lisa Dayne
UMass Medical School Communications
| March 7, 2011 |
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Warren Ferguson, MD, pictured at the 2nd annual Academic & Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health in 2008. |
Correctional health and juvenile justice professionals will have an opportunity to share ideas and learn about emerging research and best practices in their field at the fourth annual Academic & Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health. Hosted by UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division, the conference will be held in Boston on March 10 and 11, and is designed to address the unique challenges these professionals encounter in providing health care for prison populations.
“We’ve developed this conference to provide correctional health and criminal justice professionals with the latest information and research on health policy issues. Through an array of presentations, posters and plenary sessions, participants will be able to gain new skills for developing academic-correctional health partnerships and overcoming barriers to research at their own institutions,” said Warren Ferguson, MD, associate professor and vice chair of family medicine & community health, who is the founder of the conference and principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health scientific meeting grant that supports the conference.
Nearly 100 seminars, lectures, peer sessions and posters will be featured throughout the conference and will cover a variety of correctional health topics, including infectious diseases, substance abuse, mental health, juvenile justice, policy, workforce, reentry, practice redesign and research methods. To date, more than 200 participants have registered from 26 states, 55 academic institutions and six countries.
On Thursday, March 10, keynote speaker Frederick L. Altice, MD, professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, will give a presentation about the connection between substance abuse and infectious disease treatment. Dr. Altice is the director of clinical and community research and the director of the HIV in Prisons Program at the Yale University AIDS Program. He is a clinical epidemiologist and intervention researcher and has created novel programs for the treatment of HIV, HCV and tuberculosis among vulnerable populations such as those in correctional settings.
The conference will take place at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport Hotel, and attendees can register onsite. Conference registration will begin on Wednesday, March 9, from 4 to 6 p.m. and will be ongoing throughout the conference.
For more information about this year’s conference and to see presentations from the 2009 conference, visit www.umassmed.edu/commed/ch_conference/index.aspx.
About Commonwealth Medicine
Commonwealth Medicine (CWM) is the public, nonprofit health care consulting and service organization founded by UMass Medical School. Government agencies, nonprofits and managed care organizations benefit from CWM’s expertise in clinical service delivery, health care financing strategies, policy management and quality improvement. CWM programs have helped Massachusetts—and many other state, international and local health care agencies—to increase the value of health care expenditures while improving access and delivery of care to at-risk and uninsured populations. Commonwealth Medicine programs were developed, in part, as a way for UMMS faculty and staff to have a direct and profound impact on the communities of Massachusetts, and now provide critical opportunities for UMMS faculty and students to serve the community.
www.umassmed.edu/commed