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Tine Hansen-Turton 215.820.8451 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Nicholas Torres 215.718.4250 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Philadelphia, PA—The Philadelphia Social Innovations Lab announced two new cohorts for its 2014 Social Innovations Lab, to develop creative solutions to serious issues in health and health care. The program is supported by an $84,880 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The announcement was made at the December 17 Winter Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal launch event at Public Health Management Corporation, Pennsylvania's Public Health Institute. Eleven social sector leaders from the broader Philadelphia region will participate in the Spring 2014 Social Innovations Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government. Eleven fellows will participate in the Fall program. The fellows were nominated by regional foundations, University of Pennsylvania faculty and seasoned social and venture capital entrepreneurs.

Founded in 2012, the Social Innovations Lab provides instruction, mentoring, support and expert guidance to social entrepreneurs in developing viable cross-sector models, blending social impact and financial sustainability in addressing the most pressing problems in health, education and more.

The following 11 fellows were selected to further develop their ideas in the Spring of 2014:

• Jamie Ware: The Medical-Legal Partnership Sustainability Project will equip healthcare providers to connect across the continuum of care and address social determinants of health through learning networks, to ensure aligned training and best practices.
• Marian Marchese: New Leash on Life USA Project will create a specialized program to provide wounded warriors suffering from PTSD with service dogs trained by inmates.
• Linda Samost: Sunday Suppers is an innovative food access program to improve the health and well-being of low income families.
• Alex Peay: Rising Sons will support individuals 18 to 30 years old to become qualified for competitive jobs through social entrepreneurship.
• Kristen Gavin: Gearing Up will explore the development of a "Beyond the Bars" program to retain a working partnership post-incarceration with women who are engaged in its program while incarcerated.
• Ginger Zielinskie: Benefits Data Trust seeks to develop a new model to utilize healthcare and social service data to increase access to public benefits and services, leading to improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.
• John Smith: Philadelphia Engineering and Math Challenge seeks to come up with a new model to enhance the teaching and learning of problem solving and communication in our city's public schools through a series of school-based collaborative practice sessions and university-based competitive events focused on math and engineering.
• Charles Levesque: Immaculate Cleaning Services DePaul USA seeks to scale its year old, highly successful social enterprise both in Philadelphia and other cities in which it has programming.
• Maggie Eisen: Medical Legal Partnership innovation project seeks to adapt the Medical-Legal Partnership model of service delivery by connecting, aligning priorities, and unite a diverse group of community stakeholders to streamline the systems that low-income and traditionally underserved Philadelphians must navigate to meet their basic human needs and become healthier.
• Tinesha Banks: Public Health Worksite Wellness project through the Health Promotion Council will be developing a worksite wellness public health model by adapting its award winning patient navigation model for employees in the form of a Wellness Concierge service.
• Alex Epstein: Urban Creators will engage food businesses as investors in the transformation of vacant land in inner-city communities into flourishing urban farms and incubators of integrative service-learning, social innovation, and grass-roots community development.

The following 11 fellows were selected to further develop their ideas in the Fall of 2014:

• Raymond John: 12+ led seeks to cultivate a college-going culture beyond 12th grade in lower income schools by building PLUS Centers within the walls of a school to serve as hubs of college, career and academic support services and staffing them with a cost-effective, qualified workforce to provide individualized guidance for every student.
• Sarah Rosenberg: Nursing Portal Project proposes to create two different online social/professional collaboration and networking forums for nurse practitioners (NPs) and registered nurses (RNs) to connect with their colleagues globally and have access to resources they utilize on a daily basis in their job which will improve patient outcomes and quality of care.
• Natalie Cramer: Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians seeks to develop and promote an online platform to sell healthy and local food products while the growth supporting each individual vendor through the newly formed Philadelphia Healthy Food Association.
• Jim MacMillan: Gun Crisis Reporting Project seeks to build a hub to help citizens understand the epidemic of homicide by gunfire in Philadelphia, to evaluate and illuminate effective interventions, and to create opportunities to participate in gun violence reduction.
• Ryan Kuck: Greensgrow Philadelphia Project by the Fresh Food Hub will further develop and expand a mobile farmer's market and healthy corner store delivering fresh food items and community health resources to underserved neighborhoods.
• Maureen and Larry Platt: The Philadelphia Citizen non-partisan media organization seeks to provide deeply reported journalism emphasizing solutions that can move our region forward -- summarized by the phrase -- what happened, what it means, and what you can do about it.
• Barbara Doyne: 5 Star Women will further develop a program to improve the lives and secure the future for women veterans and their families, both while transitioning to civilian life and thereafter.
• Tatiana Garcia-Granados: Common Market proposes to further scale its mission to making the local bounty accessible to communities in the region, connecting public and private schools, hospitals, universities, grocery stores and workplaces to good food grown by the region's sustainable farmers.
• Neville Vakharia: Drexel University Community Arts plans to increase community arts and cultural engagement and participation in underserved neighborhoods through the development of hyperlocal communications tools.
• Dawn Holden: Transition to Success by Turning Points for Children will test and implement the evidenced based Transition To Success (TTS) model which approaches treating poverty as a disease.

About Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal - PSIJ is the first regional publication in the U.S. dedicated to social innovators and innovations. The volunteer-leveraged Journal is published quarterly and is distributed free of charge. All content is available on the website at www.philasocialinnovations.org.

About the Philadelphia Social Innovations Lab

The Lab nurtures social enterprise models from ideas to implementation. The Lab's goal is to increase the chances that the strongest ideas of Social Innovators will take root, attract capital, and ultimately have a significant social impact regionally, nationally, and internationally. Selected participants from a competitive screening process and diverse sector cohorts of private, government, and nonprofit organizations will refine and test proposals, research and tap into external resources, and build the necessary infrastructure to get their idea or organization up and running.

About the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government

The Fels Institute of Government is the University of Pennsylvania's graduate program in public policy and public management. Its practical approach to public management education, its Ivy League pedigree and its relatively small size make it one of the nation's leading boutique programs in public affairs. The Institute was founded in 1937 by Samuel Simeon Fels of the Fels Naptha Soap Company. Fels prepares its students for public leadership positions in city, state, and Federal agencies, elective politics, nonprofit organizations, and private firms with close connections to the public sector. Its more than 2,000 living alumni work in leadership roles across the US and around the world. Tine Hansen-Turton and Nick Torres direct the Social Innovations Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute.

About Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, measurable, and timely change. For more than 40 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

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December 9, 2013
Media Contact: Rebecca Devine, Maven Communications
215-434-7191 // This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Grant ramps up National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC)'s campaign to combat Hepatitis C in Philadelphia's most vulnerable communities

PHILADELPHIA, PA –Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities, through its affiliate National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC), has been awarded a second year of grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue its comprehensive hepatitis C screening program across the PHMC health network. NNCC is one of seven grantees nationally and the only organization locally to receive CDC funding to conduct hepatitis C testing in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) setting.

This year's $200,000 grant will enable PHMC to conduct 2,000 additional screenings among Philadelphia's most vulnerable populations in their five nurse-managed FQHCs, bringing the total number of hepatitis C tests to 4,000 by September 2014. The program was originally launched in October 2012 following the CDC's recommendations that all Baby Boomers get screened.

"With this year's CDC grant, PHMC can continue Philadelphia's most effective clinical model to target hepatitis C," said Catelyn Coyle, Public Health Project Coordinator with NNCC. "The success of last year's program was a huge step towards following the recent CDC guidelines because we are not targeting specific behaviors, but rather the age cohort. We have been invited to present our best practices to the CDC in January."

To help standardize the screening process, PHMC's health network uses an integrated lab-based model with Electronic Medical Record modifications to prompt for screenings, track testing and facilitate insurance reimbursement to community health centers.

Often called the "silent epidemic," hepatitis C affects roughly 3.2 million people in the U.S., though at least half of those infected are unaware. Many people do not show symptoms until decades later, after serious complications like liver disease or cancer have set in. According to the CDC, people born between 1945 and 1965 are five times more likely to have it than people of other age groups. Hepatitis Crelated deaths now outnumber HIV related deaths in this country, with more than 16,600 hepatitis C related deaths reported in 2010 by the CDC. Often times, these complications can be avoided if patients are diagnosed and treated sooner. In 2012, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Division of Disease Control added 3,911 new individuals to the HCV registry, of whom 1,622 (41%) met the case definition for a confirmed case and had not been previously confirmed in Philadelphia.

In addition to the current clinic-based CDC hepatitis C screening grant, PHMC has a longstanding record of implementing community-based viral hepatitis services directly in high risk communities. Philadelphia Hepatitis Outreach Project (P-HOP), which receives funding support from Office of Addiction Services, conducts viral hepatitis education, HCV screening and linkage to care services in communities like substance abuse recovery homes, treatment facilities, homeless shelters, youth in low-income neighborhoods, HIV patients and baby boomers. Last year, P-HOP provided more than 400 hepatitis C screenings.

Furthermore, PHMC's HIV/HCV Prevention Street Outreach Project, which now operates in partnership with P-HOP, is also conducting street outreach, education and screening services for individuals at high risk for HIV and HCV. Since 2007, both projects provided more than 2,000 hepatitis C antibody screenings and more than 60,000 individual outreach encounters.

About PHMC
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities. PHMC uses best practices to improve community health through direct service, partnership, innovation, policy, research, technical assistance and a prepared workforce. PHMC has served the region since 1972. For more information on PHMC, visit www.phmc.org.

About National Nursing Centers Consortium
The National Nursing Centers Consortium (NNCC), the national member organization for nurse-managed health centers, and an affiliate of Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) works to advance nurse-led health care through policy, consultation, programs and applied research to reduce health disparities and meet people's primary care and wellness needs. Nurse-managed health centers are community-based practices led by advanced practice nurses (primarily nurse practitioners). The nation's nurse-managed health centers reduce health disparities by providing high quality comprehensive primary health care, health promotion, and disease prevention services to uninsured and vulnerable patients in rural, urban, and suburban communities. For more information on NNCC, visit www.nncc.us.

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December 17, 2013
Contact: Lulu Francois (215.825.8202 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 

PHMC releases statistics on HIV testing in Southeastern Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA—Nearly one half of adults (47%) age 18 and older in the Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) region have never been tested for HIV, while fewer than one in four (22%) of adults have been tested within the past year, according to survey data released today from the 2012 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey, an annual survey conducted by Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) Center for Data Innovation.

The regional results underscore President Obama's recently announced National HIV/AIDS Strategy to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people with HIV by 2015. Locally, PHMC conducts annual screenings across their health network, and recently received a grant from Gilead to provide "linkage to care" coordinators to help HIV positive patients navigate the treatment process. PHMC is also among the first community health centers in the nation to use an advanced "Fourth Generation" test that detects the disease far earlier than was previously possible.

The data below focus on HIV testing behaviors among adults age 18 and older in Southeastern SEPA, specifically among those who have recently been tested for HIV and those who have never been tested.

Adults Tested for HIV in Past Year
Fewer than one in four (22%) SEPA adults 18 years of age or older have been tested for HIV within the past year, which represents an estimated 690,600 adults in the region.

• A greater percentage of younger adults have been tested in the past year compared with older adults. For example, 36% of adults 18-39 had an HIV test in the past year compared with 18% of adults age 50-59.
• Black (42%) and Latino (41 %) adults are more likely than white (14%) and Asian (14%) adults to have been tested in the past year.
• A greater percentage of adults with less than a high school diploma report having an HIV test within the past year compared with adults with further educational attainment. For example, 36% of adults with less than a high school diploma were tested, as compared with 26% of those with a high school degree and 17% of those with a college degree or more.
• Two in five (43%) adults identifying as homosexual, gay or lesbian and 35% of adults identifying as bisexual have been tested for HIV in the past year compared with 22% of adults identifying as heterosexual or straight.
• More than two in five adults (44%) living below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level have been tested within the past year, representing approximately 165,000 adults, compared with one in five adults (20%) living at or above 100% of the Federal Poverty Level.

Preventive Screening Behaviors
Adults who report having an HIV test within the past year also report receiving other recommended preventive screenings in the past year.

• More than three-quarters of women 18 years of age or older who have been tested for HIV in the past year have also received a pap smear (79%) or a clinical breast exam (76%) in the past year.
• Similarly, more than three-quarters of women 40 years of age or older have been tested for HIV and received a mammogram in the past year (76%).
• Among men 45 years of age or older, more than six in 10 have been tested for HIV and received a prostate exam in the past year (62%).

Adults Never Tested for HIV
Nearly one half of adults (47%) age 18 and older in the SEPA region have never been tested for HIV. Those more likely to report never having an HIV test include adults who are:

• White and Asian: Over one half of white (56%) and Asian (56%) adults have never been tested compared with 30% of Latino and 26% of black adults.
• Educated beyond high school: Adults with a college degree or more are more likely than those with less than a high school education to have never been tested (49% compared with 41% respectively).
• Heterosexual or straight: Nearly one half (47%) of heterosexual or straight adults have never been tested for HIV compared with 23% of homosexual, gay, or lesbian adults and 20% of bisexual adults.
• Living at or above 100% poverty guidelines: One half of adults living at or above 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (50%) have never been tested for HIV compared with one quarter of adults living below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (27%).
• Age 60 or older: Older adults are more likely than younger adults to report never having been tested for HIV: 66% of adults age 60-74 and 81% of adults age 75+ have never been tested compared with 32% of adults age 18-39, 33% of adults age 40-49, and 49% of adults age 50-59.

Preventive Screening Behaviors
Adults who have never been tested report lower levels of preventive screenings in the past year:

• Half of women (18+) who have never been tested for HIV received a pap smear in the past year (50%); 63% of women (18+) received a clinical breast exam in the past year.
• More than six in ten women (40+) who have never been tested for HIV received a mammogram in the past year (62%).
• Finally, more than half of men (45+) who have never been tested for HIV received a prostate exam in the past year (55%).

Access to Care
Adults in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs who have never been tested for HIV tend to report their health as "good" to "excellent" (85%), have health insurance (91%), have a regular source of care (90%), and have made at least one visit to their doctor or healthcare professional in the past year (87%).

These data present the differences in access to care among those who have never been tested for HIV:

• Regular source of care: Nearly half of adults who do not have a regular source of health care (48%) and 42% of adults with a regular source of care have never been tested for HIV.
• Healthcare visits: A similar percentage of adults with no visits to a doctor or healthcare professional in the past year and those with one or more visits have never been tested for HIV (43% and 47% respectively).
• ER visits: Half of adults who had no visits to the emergency room in the past year have never been tested for HIV (50%) in comparison with 39% of adults who had one or more visits to the ER.
• Insurance status: Among uninsured adults 18-64 years of age, nearly three in ten have never been tested for HIV (28%); 42% of insured adults have never been tested.

The Household Health Survey is conducted by telephone and includes 10,000 households in the SEPA region (Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties). The survey examined HIV testing by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. For more information about these findings, contact Sarah Ingerman at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Public Health Management Corporation Center for Data Innovation
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities. The Center for Data Innovation includes the Community Health Data Base (CHDB) and its annual Household Health Survey, one of the largest regional health surveys in the country. The Pew Charitable Trusts, William Penn Foundation, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, United Way of North Penn, Green Tree Community Health Foundation, North Penn Community Health Foundation, Thomas Scattergood Foundation, Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, and over 350 local agencies from the health, government, nonprofit and academic sectors, help to support the CHDB and survey. For more information visit www.phmc.org or contact Francine Axler at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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November 15, 2013
Contact: Lulu Francois (215.825.8202 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

PHMC releases statistics on tobacco use among adults in the region

PHILADELPHIA— Approximately 18 percent of Southeastern Pennsylvania adults currently smoke cigarettes. Nearly one-quarter of Philadelphia County adults smoke (23%) compared with residents of Delaware (19%), Bucks (16%), Montgomery (13%) and Chester (13%) Counties according to survey data released today from the 2012 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey, an annual survey by Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) Center for Data Innovation. The Household Health Survey is conducted by telephone and includes 10,000 households in the SEPA region (Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties). The survey examined tobacco use and exposure by a number of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

This data was released in light of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout taking place on November 21st, which encourages smokers to use the day to make a plan to quit or to plan in advance and quit using tobacco. Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States, and the American Cancer Society motivates smokers to quit, even for one day, as it reduces the risk of cancer and is an important step towards a healthier life.

PHMC's affiliate Health Promotion Council (HPC) and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Tobacco Control Project (SEPA TCP) have joined in the fight against tobacco with a variety of initiatives, including a free tobacco cessation, counseling and nicotine replacement therapy program. In the last fiscal year, more than 1,400 clients completed treatment, with 84% of those treated reporting that they had stopped smoking for one day or longer because they are trying to quit. One month after treatment, 49%had quit smoking for at least 30 days.

The HPC and SEPA TCP efforts are a great start, but to fully understand and address the scope of tobacco use and exposure across the region, more residents need to be aware of the issue.
The data below demonstrate how smoking influences tobacco users and the people around them.

Cigarette Usage

• Philadelphia adults are more likely to smoke (23%) compared with residents of Delaware (19%), Bucks (16%), Montgomery (13%), and Chester (13%) Counties.
• Across the region, men are more likely to smoke than women (21% compared with 16%).
• Cigarette smoking among adults decreases with age; 22% of adults ages 18-39 currently smoke, as do 6% of adults 75 years of age or older.
• Black adults are the most likely to smoke cigarettes (25%) compared with 22% of Latino adults, 16% of White adults and 10% of Asian adults.
• Cigarette smoking decreases as educational attainment increases. About one-third of adults in the region with less than a high school diploma (32%) currently smoke, while 9% of adults with a college degree smoke.
• Adults living in poverty are more likely to smoke (34%) compared with adults at or above 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (16%).

Smoke Exposure at Home
More than one in ten adults (18+) live in a household where someone in the house smokes cigarettes, cigars or pipes inside the home (12%). In addition, 7% of adults who do not smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke by another household resident smoking inside the home, representing approximately 186,000 people.

The following bullet points examine non-smokers exposure to secondhand smoke at home.

• Non-smokers in Philadelphia County are more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke in their home (10%) compared with adults residing in the other SEPA counties.
• Black non-smokers are more likely to live in a household where someone smokes (12%) in comparison with Latino adults (7%), White adults (6%) and Asian adults.
• Similar to cigarette smoking, those with less than a high school diploma are more likely to be exposed to tobacco smoke at home (12%) compared with those with a college degree or more (3%).

Cigarette Usage, Smoke Exposure at Home and Key Health Indicators

• Adults who smoke cigarettes are more likely to be in fair or poor health (26%) than adults who do not smoke (14%). The same applies for adults who do not smoke and are exposed to secondhand smoke by another resident smoking in the home—21% are in fair or poor health compared with 14% of those not exposed.
• Four in ten non-smoking adults exposed to secondhand smoke at home (40%) have been diagnosed with high blood pressure compared with three in ten non-smokers who are not exposed to secondhand smoke inside the home (31%).

For more information about these findings, contact Sarah Ingerman at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Public Health Management Corporation Center for Data Innovation
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities. The Center for Data Innovation includes the Community Health Data Base (CHDB) and its annual Household Health Survey, one of the largest regional health surveys in the country. The Pew Charitable Trusts, William Penn Foundation, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, United Way of North Penn, Green Tree Community Health Foundation, North Penn Community Health Foundation, Thomas Scattergood Foundation, Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, and over 350 local agencies from the health, government, nonprofit and academic sectors, help to support the CHDB and survey. For more information visit www.phmc.org or contact Francine Axler at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Health Promotion Council
Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania (HPC) is a non-profit corporation organized in 1981. HPC affiliated with Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), a leading public health institute, in 1999. HPC's mission is to promote health, and prevent and manage chronic disease, especially among vulnerable populations, through community-based outreach, education and advocacy. Its unique programs advocating positive health behaviors, together with its innovative work with minority groups have advanced the field of health promotion in Southeastern Pennsylvania and across the nation. For more information, visit www.hpcpa.org.

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