In this update:
Last
month, Maine CDC announced a change in leadership that will provide both
strong operational leadership and clinical expertise to the CDC and position it
for continued success.
Sheryl
Peavey has been appointed the Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Dr.
Christopher Pezzullo has been named the State Health Officer. The COO
will be responsible for day-to-day operational decision-making, while the
State Health Officer’s clinical expertise will inform decisions affecting
public health for the Maine CDC and the DHHS. Both positions will report
directly to DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew.
Former Maine CDC Director Kenneth Albert resigned to take a job in the
private sector.
Prior
to this appointment, Peavey served as DHHS’ Director of Strategic Reform. She
has played an integral role in budget development, contract evaluation,
competitive procurement, Request for Proposal review and development,
performance measurement, grant approval and quality improvement for the Maine
CDC and other DHHS offices since 2013. While in this role, she represented
Maine at the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget’s Achieving Results
in State Government Summit in Utah.
Peavey
is a graduate of Brandeis University as well as a member of the Phi Class of
Leadership Maine, a program of the Maine Development Foundation. Since
2009, she has served continuous terms as an elected member of her town’s Budget
Committee. Her experience over a 12-year
career in State government that focused on developing coordinated and
integrated programs and systems across all of DHHS has positioned her to
provide strong stewardship of public funds as we seek to achieve measurable
outcomes that preserve, promote and protect the health of all Maine people.
Dr.
Pezzullo has been practicing medicine for nearly 20 years in Maine as a
pediatrician He’s a graduate of the University of New England College of
Osteopathic Medicine and has been recognized as a Diplomate of the American
Board of Pediatrics and the National Board of Osteopathic Medical
Examiners.
He
became DHHS’ Chief Health Officer in 2014. During the last year, Dr. Pezzullo
has been a driving force behind the Department’s efforts to address the public
health epidemic of opioid and opiate use. He has informed new laws that
lower prescribing duration and prescription strength, supported the required
use of the Prescription Monitoring Program and assisted in the development and
creation of a new pilot project to test Vivitrol to combat addiction.
Dr.
Pezzullo joined Maine CDC as the Medical Director of the Division of Population
Health in 2012. Prior to joining State government, he was the Chief
Medical Officer for University Health Care from 2008 to 2012.
Dr.
Pezzullo was also recently named the Maine Osteopathic Association’s Physician
of the Year.
Maine CDC has earned public health accreditation from the Public Health
Accreditation Board (PHAB). Maine CDC joins 18 other state health
departments that have achieved this distinction. Fewer than 200 health
departments across the nation are accredited.
The PHAB’s goal is to improve and protect
public health by transforming the quality and performance of public health
departments. This national program, jointly supported by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
establishes rigorous standards that foster continuous quality improvement and
excellence. To earn accreditation, a health department must undergo a
multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it meets or exceeds
these quality standards and measures. Maine CDC has been working
toward accreditation over the last several years.
The PHAB standards cover a dozen different
domains including public health assessments, investigation and surveillance,
communication and education, community collaboration, policies and planning,
enforcement of public health laws, workforce capacity, leadership and process
improvement. A full list of the domains and the multiple standards
associated with them can be found at http://www.phaboard.org/wp-content/uploads/PHABSM_WEB_LR1.pdf.
Maine’s accreditation is in effect for five
years.
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Jeri Greenwell (seated) was named Maine’s
Immunization Champion for 2016 by the U.S. CDC. Joining Greenwell in the photo are (from
left) Maine CDC Immunization program staff Celeste Poulin, Tonya Philbrick and
Danielle Hall.
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U.S. CDC has named Jeri Greenwell of Bethel as Maine’s 2016 Childhood
Immunization Champion for her outstanding efforts to promote childhood immunizations.
Greenwell has made it her life’s mission to
improve awareness about vaccine-preventable diseases. She has developed
relationships with political leaders from both sides of the aisle, spoken with
many about the importance of vaccination and has met with various groups and
individuals to provide education. In
addition, Greenwell has coordinated school-based activities with school nurses,
students and parents to support on-time immunizations.
Greenwell’s
passion and commitment to children’s health is driven by her family’s personal
tragedy. In 2003, her son, Jerry, awoke
with flu-like symptoms and by evening, he was admitted to the hospital in
critical condition. Despite aggressive,
round-the-clock care, Jerry died from meningococcal meningitis with this family
by his side. This disease is preventable
through immunization.
“Only
those who have experienced their child or loved one suffering from the
devastating consequences of a vaccine-preventable disease can truly comprehend
the impact it has on a family or parent,’’ said Maine Department of Health and
Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew. “Jeri has been a tireless advocate for
childhood immunization and has turned her grief into positive action.”
Each
year during National
Infant Immunization Week, the U.S. CDC and
its CDC Foundation honor health professionals and community leaders from around
the country with the CDC
Childhood Immunization Champion awards. These
awards acknowledge the outstanding efforts of those individuals who strive to
ensure that children in their communities are fully immunized against 14
preventable diseases before age two.
A new e-learning module, Health Equity in Maine, is now
available at www.maine.gov/pht, Maine’s public
health training site.
This module
reinforces the basic concepts of how public health works to address health
disparities faced by Maine people. You will learn the difference between
health inequity and health inequality, the structural factors and social
determinants of health that influence the health of Maine people and how
public health practitioners can adapt and implement programs to address health
inequities.
The module takes about 60 minutes to complete and is interactive,
providing opportunities for learners to work through a Maine-based case study
to identify public health strategies to address health disparities.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized the
new nutrition facts label for packaged foods to reflect new scientific
information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as
obesity and heart disease. Among the changes to help consumers is the addition
of grams of added sugars below "Total Sugars." Manufacturers will need to use the
new label by July 26, 2018, although manufacturers with less
than $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year.
For more information, go to http://go.usa.gov/xqZzA
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