Confronting childhood obesity in America

September 24, 8:06 PMHealth ExaminerAngela Spears

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David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the U.S.

Several former Surgeon Generals and front-line clinical primary care leaders from 13 national and regional clinical networks will convene in Washington, DC to participate in an upcoming forum that will address childhood obesity in the United States. The National Summit of Clinicians for Healthcare Justice will host the event sponsored by many of the major safety-net clinician organizations across the U.S. The 2½ day event will be held October 23-25, 2008. Clinicians and advocates from all over the country are expected to come together to celebrate, acknowledge and highlight the work front-line clinicians do to serve disenfranchised populations in need of basic health care.

David Satcher, former Surgeon General and current Director, Center of Excellence on Health Disparities and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine will lead the opening keynote panel on childhood obesity. The conference will provide an opportunity for clinicians and others to explore solutions to make quality health care for the underserved a reality. The summit will culminate in a vigil on Capitol Hill to show support for health care justice and to demonstrate the need for health care reform.

Featured speakers include: C. Everett Koop, MD the 13th Surgeon General; John Rich, MD: Professor, Chair: Department of Health Management and Policy, Drexel University; Richard H. Carmona, 17th Surgeon General; Kitty Ernst, CNM, MPH and Director of the NACC Consulting Group and holds the Mary Breckinridge Chair of Midwifery at the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing; Dr. H. Jack Geiger a leader in the field of social medicine and the global movement for health and human rights; Donald Warne, MD, MPH President and CEO of American Indian Health Management & Policy; Gloria Wilder Brathwaite, Medical Director, Mobile Health Programs at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Among the topics to be discussed: 

• Confronting Childhood Obesity in America: Implications for Health Policy and Health Justice
• American Indian Health Policy and Health Disparities
• Trauma, Urban Violence and African American Men: Envisioning New Pathways to Healing
• Fighting for Health Care Justice in Newly Emerging Communities
• Needs of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Communities
• Student-Run Initiatives to Build Health Care Access
• The Health Care Impact of Stigmatization on Individuals with Disabilities

According to the National Institutes of Health childhood overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions and are major public health problems nationally and globally. Between 1970 and 2004, the prevalence of overweight almost tripled among U.S. preschoolers and adolescents and quadrupled among children aged 6 to11 years.

Register for the conference here