Public Health
Injury Prevention
School and Community Health
Advocacy Pathway
Shetal Shah, MD
Clinical Professor of Neonatology
Pediatrics/ Neonatology
Maria Fareri Children's Hospital/ New York Medical College
Maria Fareri Children's Hospital/ New York Medical College
Valhalla, New York, United States
Shale Wong, MD, MSPH
Professor and Vice Chair for Policy & Advocacy
Farley Health Policy Center, Executive Director
Pediatrics
University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Dept of Pediatrics
Aurora, Colorado, United States
This video is unavailable at the request of one or more presenters.
The toll of gun violence on young people represents one of the most significant public health challenges facing contemporary America. In recent years, firearm-related injury and death has made headlines routinely, including mass shootings at schools, public festivals, and places of worship, while daily occurrences of gun violence affect local communities. Gun violence touches young people directly, impacting them, their family members, and friends. Additionally, the ongoing threat of gun violence, reinforced through regular active shooter drills in schools and media reports, extends the detrimental effects of gun violence further through biological stress mechanisms. Despite the frequency of these tragic events, too little research into interventions and public policies to reduce gun violence has been conducted in over two decades due in large part to a reticence on the part of the federal government to fund such work. In 2019, the Pediatric Policy Council engaged in successful advocacy efforts that helped to appropriate $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to administer grants for firearm research. Still, the United States has lagged behind its peers in identifying and implementing policies to address this problem. This session will explore the role of public health research in iterative policymaking to reduce gun violence in America. The goal will be to introduce key concepts to pediatric academicians, setting the stage for a moderated panel discussion.
Presenter: Joshua Sharfstein, Dr. – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Presenter: Lois Lee, MD, MPH – Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Presenter: Benjamin Hoffman, MD – OHSU
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