St. Clair Health’s Post

For those who believe #foodismedicine, not just for individuals but for communities too, tune into the CDC Foundation’s upcoming webinar to hear about some bright spots in the #foodsystem

Good Health for all of you

If you want to learn more about those that are fighting for health equity, I encourage you to read this interview with Michael James. Our vision is to provide Equity and Excellence for Everyone, Every Time. Read how Michael is working to help make that happen.

🎉 Celebrating 63 Years of icddr,b's Impactful Scientific Journey! As we mark our 63rd Anniversary today, let's look back on our remarkable scientific journey—from pioneering Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) to innovative solutions like microbes to combat malnutrition. These groundbreaking discoveries showcase our six decades of unwavering commitment to addressing global public health challenges and saving lives! Read the full article here: https://cutt.ly/vwPkuGq3

We're at three conferences this week! So if you're attending the Texas Public Health Association Official's annual conference in Galveston, the National Network of Public Health Institutes conference in New Orleans, or the NASTAD conference in Washington DC, be sure to stop by and say hi, learn more about our certifications, and the CPH content outline update! Oh, and yes, swag. #publichealth #PublicHealthEducation #CPHcertification

Last year's Feeding America national conference left us with these 4 key takeaways that you can read more about here. https://buff.ly/49ocWXj What are you hoping to hear at this year's conference?

I had the pleasure yesterday of interviewing Namandje Bumpus, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, on stage at POLITICO Live's Health Summit. You can find a replay of that wide-ranging discussion below on CSPAN. Topic highlights include how FDA's advisory committee system is evolving, the current status of FDA's diversity action plan guidance, how the agency is thinking about its capacity to handle A.I., and animal testing models. https://lnkd.in/e_F4np_X

Really interesting, wide-ranging interview with FDA #2 Namandje Bumpus -- some highlights with relevance to #insilicotrials (IST) - 1) Discussion of diversity action plans in clinical trials (~9 min. mark): All about "understanding the totality of potential response in the population" by including diverse populations. Few thoughts here: _____(a) ISTs offer an opportunity to demonstrate effect of a treatment on different demographics by offering (relatively) controlled A-to-B comparisons in which in silico patient cohorts are specifically designed to capture characteristics of these demographic groups; _____(b) Along those lines, ISTs are a terrific option to assess rare populations in which anatomy or physiology is known to be highly variable or at the edge of typical distributions. ISTs provide the ability to assess how these 'edge cases' of physiology directly impact the safety and efficacy of the drug/device. _____(c) We must, must, must make sure that our ISTs represent the range of characteristics for the target population, including different demographic groups. This will be easier as imaging datasets grow to include variability across demographics. That said, we have to be intentional about acquiring data for more diverse populations so we can build virtual cohorts that are heavily weighted to the diversity; _____(d) On the topic of distribution weights of cohorts (or enrollment, really), ISTs allow for tuning of enrollment across populations. One could 'over-weight' a certain population in order to gather more data on the tails of a distribution much more easily than one can enroll rare populations in a large trial. Achieving trial diversity in ISTs is obviously a huge challenge (afterall, need the credibility evidence to do any of this), but the flexibility and control inherent to creating these cohorts and the ability to gain more information from careful analysis of model results presents huge opportunities to tackle the challenges of diversity action plans in understanding drug/device performance. 2) Another great discussion around the 14 min. mark about animal testing and the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, including discussion of alternative methods (which I discussed in a post earlier this week in the context of ICCVAM and 'New Approach Methodologies' in toxicology) and in silico approaches (which Dr. Bumpus shouts-out directly). 3) Obligatory AI discussion around the 17:30 mark including a mention of 100,000 virtual rats (yikes!). Obviously huge applications here for in silico that are only touched on but that tie nicely into the first two points, including a warning about reinforcing biases that are present in the underlying data. Might be a place for some synthetic data generated from ISTs that has a more appropriate population diversity as alluded to in point 1 above.... Check out the interview, nicely done Alexander Gaffney, MS, RAC

✨ The Journal of Trauma-Informed Community Health, Nutrition, and Physical Activity (J-TICH) invites you to contribute your expertise and stories. We are currently accepting submissions for the upcoming issue of this open-access, peer-reviewed publication. ✨ J-TICH articles are focused on topics such as food, nourishment, nutrition security, and community flourishing. We welcome submissions authored by practitioners actively engaged in community work who may not be traditionally represented in academic writing. Explore the J-TICH website to learn about the role of the author, what is involved in submitting to the journal, and view some writing resources. https://lnkd.in/gpPNs539

Calling all health professionals, advocates and enthusiasts! 📢 Join me and the healthcare community at this year's Longevity Fest hosted by The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) in Las Vegas! I'm looking forward to connecting with like-minded individuals who are passionate about advancing healthcare, learning about the latest innovations, sharing insights, and working toward a healthier future for all. Stop by booth 4091 to grab a signed copy of my new book, "Hormone Havoc!"