Description of Award

The Secretary's Award for Innovations in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention program (Secretary's Award) was developed from a suggestion in 1981 by a Temple University health education student, who submitted an idea to the Department of Health and Humans Services (DHHS) for a competition among health professions students for proposals concerning health promotion and disease prevention.  

Requirements

Student proposals should take their inspiration from the 467 objectives detailed in Healthy People 2010.   During each academic year, each health professions school or college may submit one single discipline paper and one interdisciplinary paper to the Secretary's Award.  Students matriculating in Canadian veterinary curricula are not eligible for the Secretary's Award competition.  

Description of HP 2010

The document Healthy People 2010 contains the nation's health agenda for the next 10  years.  The challenge for all health professions is to translate these objectives into effective action.  There are 467 objectives in 28 focus areas, making Healthy People 2010 an encyclopedic compilation of health improvement opportunities for the next decade.  The document's two major goals reflect the nation's changing demographics.  The first goal is to increase the quality and years of healthy life, while the second goal is to eliminate health disparities among our diverse population.  

Previous Winners

During the 1999-2000 academic year,  Delilah Cuthriel of Auburn University's School of Pharmacy and Pat Davis of Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine won third place honors ($3000) in the interdisciplinary division of the Secretary's Award for "The Letter in the Litter: A Public Information Pamphlet to Reduce the Incidence of Toxoplasma gondii in Pregnant Women and Their Children."  This project won first place ($1,000) in the Hill's Public Health Award writing competition.

This project will improve prenatal care and prevent potential birth defects, “The Letter in the Litter” (TLTL) project educates pregnant women and women of childbearing age about toxoplasmosis.  Through distribution of pamphlets in bags of cat litter and with prenatal vitamin prescriptions, this project aims to increase public awareness regarding toxoplasmosis as an infectious disease with a special focus on the ways it can be prevented.  TLTL project encourages women to take precautions while handling their cats and emphasizes proper handling of raw meat since these are the primary routes of transmission.  TLTL project will make information on toxoplasmosis and its prevention available to a large number of women at no cost to them.  By increasing public awareness of toxoplasmosis, it advocates healthy relationships between women and their cats. This paper was published in the October 2000 issue of the National Academies of Practice Forum.  

Links

These three links provide important information about writing a proposal for submission to the Secretary’s Award writing competition.

• American Association of Colleges of Nursing (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/) provides a description of the competition and an on-line Entry Cover Sheet.

• Healthy People 2010 (www.health.gov/healthypeople/) gives the full text of the 467 objectives and includes a Table of Contents and a search engine to help you find what you are looking for.

• Guide for Composing a Proposal for the Secretary’s Award for Innovations in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention describes the contents of  the proposal and offers advice about style.  It includes the correct form for documentation and checklists to help you remember what is required.