Thank You for Making a Difference

For all the challenges that 2020 has brought us, it also has demonstrated how vital the work you do is to the communities you serve and to our nation, as a whole. 

I encourage you to take a moment to watch a video featuring some of our Members, Leaders in Health: Chronic Disease Directors, about how your work makes a difference.

To help support the work you do specifically in this public health environment, the Association is continuing to expand our professional development resources. We recently launched a new Learning Management System (LMS), which hosts a growing number of courses focused on building skills in the seven Chronic Disease Competency areas. These learning modules are customized to reflect the current, real-world situations public health professionals face in chronic disease prevention and control. 

At NACDD, we also are growing our work and influence in new directions that help address social determinants of health, such as medical-dental integration. CDC’s Division of Oral Health has awarded NACDD funding for a two-year project to develop a national framework for integrating medical and dental services in public health settings and healthcare systems, with a focus on serving populations with unmet oral health and/or chronic disease prevention and control needs, particularly individuals with multiple chronic conditions. (Learn more about the project.)

Our growing work also will address underserved conditions, especially epilepsy, which often is a misunderstood, misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, and undertreated condition. (Watch our General Member Webinar “Seizures and Epilepsy: The ‘Forgotten’ Chronic Disease You Need to Know About” to learn how you can take simple steps to include this chronic disease in your current projects).  

We hope these tools and programs ultimately will support you as our Members enter into new territory this fall and winter with the continuing pandemic. 

I want you to know that NACDD staff and consultants are even more in awe of and thankful for your dedication, your passion, your innovative ideas, and your selfless efforts this year. 

You are helping your institutions and programs become anti-racist. You are helping communities devastated most by chronic disease stay safer during COVID-19. And you are doing all of this with strained resources, lack of staff, and constantly changing knowledge and information about the pandemic. 

We are here for you and with you. 

Thank you for forging ahead and protecting lives in these difficult times.

In Good Health and Gratitude,
John W. Robitscher, MPH
Chief Executive Officer

Read more from the November 2020 issue of Impact Brief below.

• Million Hearts® Cardiac Rehabilitation Think Tank
  NACDD supported the Million Hearts®Cardiac Rehabilitation Think Tank that CDC convened in late October. The Think Tank focused on creating a strategic plan to advance the development, validation, and adoption of new care models in cardiac rehabilitation.  Goals of the Think Tank included: Understand the current field of new cardiac rehabilitation models and associated challenges Explore… Read more: Million Hearts® Cardiac Rehabilitation Think Tank
• From the CEO – November 2020 Impact Brief
  Thank You for Making a Difference For all the challenges that 2020 has brought us, it also has demonstrated how vital the work you do is to the communities you serve and to our nation, as a whole.  I encourage you to take a moment to watch a video featuring some of our Members, Leaders in… Read more: From the CEO – November 2020 Impact Brief
• Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Equity: The Key to Improving Life and Healthcare (2020)