Dr. Lisa Harrison, from left, Capt. Benitez McCrary, Dr. David Levine, Dr. Henry Spratt and Capt. Jeffrey Lawrence.
USPHS Mission
U.S. Public Health Services includes:
- Promoting the public health of the United States.
- Providing pharmaceutical care to American Indians/Alaska Natives, federal inmates, and members of the Coast Guard.
- Expanding knowledge through biomedical, behavioral, and health services research.
- Controlling and preventing disease.
- Improving the health care system, including development of innovations.
- Assuring safe and effective use of drugs and medical devices.
- Expanding national health resources.
- Responding to natural disasters, technological
- emergencies and biological and chemical terrorism.
- Shaping the health workforce, medical knowledge, technology, and other resources.
Three professors from UTC took part recently in a national conference by the U.S. Public Health Service, an event that included presentations by two officials who served as acting surgeon general for the country.
Held at the Chattanooga Convention Center, the Scientific and Training Symposium ran from Tuesday through Friday, June 6-9, and brought in health experts from across the world.
The Public Health Service, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a group of about 6,500 health professionals that provide care in the U.S. prison systems, Native American reservations, military facilities, and others. Its main goal is to improve public health.
On June 7, UTC’s Dr. David Levine, professor and Walter M. Cline Chair of Excellence in the Physical Therapy Department, and Dr. Henry Spratt, a professor in the Biology, Geology and Environmental Science Department, gave a presentation on “Healthcare-Associated Infections and Preventions.” Dr. Lisa Harrison, director of Clinical Education in Physical Therapy, gave a presentation on “STEADI for the Physical Therapist: Preventing Falls in the Older Adult.”
“For us, it was a great opportunity to interact with these highly qualified professionals and to exchange ideas and hopefully form some collaborative effort’s in the future,” Levine says.
Among the other conference attendees were:
- Sylvia Trent-Adams, who became the acting Surgeon General for the U.S. on April 21. Prior to that, she was the deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that role, she helped manage the Ryan White CARE Act, which allocates $2.3 billion to address the needs of uninsured people with AIDS and also trains healthcare workers in the treatment of AIDS.
- Anne Schuchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Assistant Surgeon General and a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
- Boris Lushniak, a retired rear admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who also served at U.S. Acting Surgeon General in 2013-14.
- Dr. James S. Marks, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who oversees all of the organization’s work on communications, research, and policy.
- Capt. Benitez McCrary, chief professional officer for the U.S. Public Health Service’s Therapist category, who specializes in elder/geriatric therapeutic care and lower motor neurological disorders rehabilitation.
- Boris Lushniak, a retired rear admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who also served at U.S. Acting Surgeon General in 2013-14.
- Erika Lee, an historian and director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
