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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

HEALTHLINK: Becoming Hep B Free

This article appeared as a two-page spread in HealthLink Magazine (Fall 2010 issue, pgs. 6-7), published by Brown & Toland Physicians.

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Hepatitis B is linked to an increased risk of liver cancer among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Learn more about this disease and the campaign to fight it.

If San Francisco becomes the first city to stamp out hepatitis B — the contagious liver infection linked to liver cancer and caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) — then a historic coalition of more than 50 Asian Pacific Islander (API) and healthcare organizations, including Brown & Toland Physicians, can rightfully claim to have met its goal.

Dubbed the San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, this initiative aims to screen, vaccinate and treat all San Francisco API residents for hepatitis B by providing convenient, free or low-cost blood tests at partnering health facilities and events. Already, it has spawned similar hepatitis B campaigns across the country, from Alameda County to Philadelphia.

"As an elected official, I feel it is my responsibility to educate people about hepatitis B," says state Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, who is the campaign’s honorary chair. By encouraging the community to take swift action, she adds, "hopefully, we're saving lives."

The need to increase public awareness about hepatitis B is fully appreciated by Assemblywoman Ma, who has the virus, passed from generation to generation in her family. Once Ma understood the threat she faced as an HBV carrier (including a one in four chance of developing liver cancer), she consulted her doctor and now gets tested regularly. She urged her mother to do the same. "Last December, doctors removed a cancerous part of my mother's liver, and now she's fine," says Ma. "The message is that you have to catch hepatitis B early. My family is living proof."

Chilling Statistics, Achievable Goals

Ma's family exemplifies the virus' threat to public health: An estimated one in 10 Asians are chronically infected with hepatitis B and are four times more likely to die from liver cancer compared with the general population; San Francisco has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation, due to its high population of Asian-Americans. The campaign’s intense efforts have been likened to the coordinated assault on AIDS and HIV, with an important exception: the imminent chance for success. "We have a safe and effective vaccine, we have good oral medications to slow or prevent liver damage, and we have decent tests to determine what someone needs," says Janet Zola of the San Francisco Department of Public Health and one of Hep B Free’s cofounders and current leads. "We just have got to get people to know it."

Getting the Public's Attention

Effective use of the media to spread the message about hepatitis B has been a vital Hep B Free strategy, owing in no small part to the pivotal involvement of one of the campaign's cofounders, Ted Fang, director of the AsianWeek Foundation, and its marketing committee, chaired by John Fisher of Brown & Toland. Print and billboard ads have been especially attention getting and feature actual members of the San Francisco API community, not professional models. "The ads have been highly visible, both locally and nationally. They get people talking about hepatitis B," says Mai-Sie Chan, M.D., a Brown & Toland internist, who’s among a group of physicians featured in the latest ads and practices in the Chinatown community. "It's a good way to participate in solving a problem that is relevant not only to the Asian Pacific Islander community but to everyone."

Thursday, September 23, 2010

ANA Announces Finalists for 2010 Multicultural Excellence Awards

Advertisers Honored in Eight Categories, Including New Print Category

New York, NY - The Association of National Advertisers today announced the finalists for the 2010 Multicultural Excellence Awards. Currently in its 10th year, the awards recognize ANA member companies and other marketers for their outstanding work in producing multicultural advertising campaigns that ran between June 2009 and June 2010.

The 2010 grand prize winner in each category will be announced at a ceremony during ANA's 12th Annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference. The event will run from November 7-9 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in Miami, FL. For more information about the conference, including the full agenda, please visit http://www.ana.net/conference/show/id/MCC-NOV10.

This year marks the inauguration of a new category highlighting exceptional work in print advertising. In addition to print, finalists were named in seven other categories. The brand and agency finalists in each of the eight categories are listed below:

African American
• McDonald's US, Burrell Communications Group
• McDonald's US, Burrell Communications Group
• MillerCoors, commonground

Asian
• McDonald's US, IW Group, Inc.
• Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, IW Group, Inc.
San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, DAE

Campaign with Significant Results
• Marine Corps Recruiting Command, UniWorld Group, Inc.
• Procter & Gamble, Burrell Communications Group
San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, DAE

Digital Media
• Ford Motor Company, Zubi Advertising
• McDonald's US, Alma DDB
• MillerCoors, commonground

General Market Category
• 46664/Nelson Mandela Foundation, Gotham
• Procter & Gamble, Burrell Communications Group
• State Farm, Draftfcb Chicago

Hispanic
• Allstate Insurance Company, Lapiz
• McDonald's US, Alma DDB
• The Ad Council, Grupo Gallegos

Print
• California Milk Processor Board, Grupo Gallegos
• McDonald's US, IW Group, Inc.
San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, DAE

Radio
• Cine las Americas Film Festival, LatinWorks
• The Coca Cola Company, Ogilvy Latina
• MillerCoors, commonground

The awards are sponsored by the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Committee. Established in 1998, the committee sits at the intersection of multicultural marketing and diversity management. Its mission is to educate and inform members on key topics and issues relevant to today's multicultural marketers and diversity leaders. A portion of the proceeds collected from the awards submission fees will be used to help fund scholarships for multicultural students who plan to pursue careers in advertising and/or marketing.


# # #

About the ANA

Founded in 1910, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) leads the marketing community by providing its members with insights, collaboration, and advocacy. ANA's membership includes 400 companies with 9,000 brands that collectively spend over $250 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote, and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit www.ana.net.

Press Contacts:

Lesley Neadel
CooperKatz & Co. for the ANA
lneadel@cooperkatz.com
(917) 595-3034

Luna Ross
CooperKatz & Co. for the ANA
lross@cooperkatz.com
(917) 595-3061

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

National Hep B Community Gathers in San Francisco To Honor Nobel Laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg and SF Hep B Free

By Grace Niwa - AsianWeek.com

Left to right:
Meredith Bergin Bailey, Asian Liver Center, Dr. Stuart Fong, Chinese Hospital, Dr. Baruch Blumberg, Dr. Joseph Woo, Chinese Hospital, Ted Fang, AsianWeek Foundation & SF Hep B Free, Janet Zola, SF Department of Public Health & SF Hep B Free, John Fisher, Brown and Toland Physicians Group.


San Francisco – Nobel Laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg, discoverer of the Hepatitis B virus and developer of its vaccine was honored at San Francisco’s Hepatitis B Free Coast to Coast Awards Gala on September 16 at The Regency Center. Co-host Chinese Hospital presented its 37th Annual Award to Dr. Blumberg for his contribution to improving the health of Asians. Dr. Blumberg was also presented with the 3rd Annual Hep B Free Super Hero Award which includes a blue cape with the “B Superhero” emblem emblazoned on the back. The night’s event was presented by SF Hep B Free and Chinese Hospital, and produced by the AsianWeek Foundation.

“The means are available to prevent and treat hepatitis B,” said Blumberg. “These good outcomes can only be fully achieved if the public, and particularly populations with a high rate of infection, including those of Asian origin, are educated about the virus and take part in the program of vaccination, detection, and treatment. The Chinese Hospital, San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, Hepatitis B Foundation in Philadelphia and other Hep B Free initiatives across the nation are making the public aware of the problem and leading the efforts to solve it.”

Emceed by Hepatitis B spokespersons, California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and ABC7 Anchor/Reporter Alan Wang, over 600 people attended. Special guests included Joan Block, Executive Director, Hepatitis B Foundation, Dr. Moon Chen, UC Davis, Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training, Jeff Cabellero, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Dr. Mitch Katz, Chief Public Health Officer for San Francisco, Dr. Ed Chow, Health Commissioner, Mark Leno, State Senator, David Chiu, President, SF Board of Supervisors, Carmen Chu, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, Supervisor and James Fang, President, BART Board.

Hep B Free Philadelphia is a public awareness and education campaign – based on the enormously successful San Francisco Hep B Free campaign,” said Joan Block, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Hepatitis B Foundation. “We felt the time was right in creating this initiative. We want to feel a part of a larger movement for change because together, we can do more to help people and save lives.”

Deaths from liver cancer are rising faster than any other cancer in America. San Francisco’s Hep B Free public health project is leading the country as a healthcare reform model. A unique collaboration of over 50 private and public organizations, its goal is to turn San Francisco into the first city in America to be free of hepatitis B transmission, which is responsible for up to 80% of all liver cancer. Their innovative campaign also addresses the disease as the greatest health disparity for Asian Pacific Americans in the nation, and in the world. Based on the enormously successful SF Hep B Free campaign, other counties and cities are starting to replicate its model. They include Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Clara, Alameda, Long Beach, San Mateo, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

SF Hep B Free is the country’s first initiative to utilize healthcare reform principles, including electronic medical records and quality assurance measures, for addressing a leading health disparity and a deadly chronic disease. The program has received national coverage in the New York Times, PBS News Hour, NPR’s Morning Edition, San Francisco Chronicle and others.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Event Photos - Week of Sept. 13, 2010

9-15-10 Hep B Panel Discussion with Asia Society

Click here to see photos

9-16-10 CME Luncheon & news conference @ Chinese Hospital Honors Dr Baruch Blumberg

Click here to see photos

9-16-10 Hep B Free Coast to Coast Gala Honoring Dr Baruch Blumberg

Click here to see photos

Sunday, September 19, 2010

SF Examiner: Public health specialist works to raise hepatitis B awareness

By: Brent Begin | Examiner Staff Writer

Janet Zola, the health promotion specialist at the Department of Public Health and co-creator of "SF Hep B Free," was part of a week of events to raise awareness about hepatitis B in the Asian and Pacific Islander population (API).

What is Hep B Free? It’s a broad spectrum coalition of people in health care, the Asian-American community, businesses and nonprofits all coming together to stop the spread of hepatitis B and liver cancer.

Why the Asian-American community? In the API population there is a 10 percent infection rate. This is chronic, as it is less than 1 percent in the general population. It is one of the greatest health disparities we’ve seen.

How do you get the disease? The disease is generally passed on at birth. Over half the people infected are unaware of it. When you become affected at a very early age there are no symptoms. Only simple blood tests can tell you.

Can you get it any other way? It’s also a blood borne disease that can be transmitted sexually or through needles. Hepatitis B is about 100 times more infectious than HIV.

What’s the problem with fighting this disease? The great thing is we have all the tools to prevent and fight this disease. The problem is the lack of knowledge, lack of awareness and lack of funding support.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Business Times: S.F.'s hepatitis B campaign now a model

By Ron Leuty, Reporter | Read full article

San Francisco's Hep B Free campaign, aimed at eradicating one of the Asian-American community’s biggest killers, is being copied nationwide.

A Hep B Free campaign ad in a San Francisco bus.


Ted Fang, director of the AsianWeek Foundation and a driver behind San Francisco's campaign, said as many as a dozen communities, including Philadelphia, "are trying replicate the model here in San Francisco."

Speaking at an event Wednesday that featured Baruch Blumberg, the Nobel Prize-winning discoverer of the hepatitis B virus and vaccine, Fang said Hep B Free is helping to erase the stigma of a disease that left untreated can lead to deadly liver cancer.

San Francisco, not coincidentally, has the highest liver cancer rate in the United States, according to the group.

Hep B Free brought together city government, private health care providers and businesses. Key to the campaign has been ads on buses and at Muni shelters that show different groups of 10 Asian-Americans and a tagline, "Which one deserves to die?"

That refers to the fact that one in 10 in the Asian-American community is chronically infected with the disease.





(In the attached video, Fang talks about how Hep B Free has tapped the unique characteristics of the Asian-American community — including 90 percent coverage by health insurance, according to Fang — to get San Francisco hospitals involved.)

Hep B Free now is asking every primary care doctor in San Francisco to sign a pledge to test at-risk patients for hep B. Sixty percent have signed up, Fang said, including all physicians at 54-bed Chinese Hospital, North East Medical Services in Chinatown and Kaiser Permanente.

"This is not just an Asian problem," said Samuel So. director of the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University. "This is a community problem. This is an American problem."

Email Ron Leuty at rleuty@bizjournals.com

Hepatitis B Prevention Program Gaining Traction in San Francisco

Author: Steven Fox | Download PDF | See online version

September 17, 2010 (San Francisco, California) — A unique community-based program aimed at preventing hepatitis B in the high-risk Asian population is effectively combining provocative advertising with electronic medical records (EMRs) to maximize its success.

The program, known as San Francisco Hep B Free, is a collaborative effort of more than 50 private and public organizations that was launched 3 years ago. It sponsors numerous screening clinics, works with hospitals and primary care physicians to make screening a part of routine care, and tracks the treatment of people who are already infected with the virus.

The program works with hospitals to get pledges from physicians to routinely screen their patients for the presence of hepatitis B virus. So far, nearly half the primary care physicians in the city have signed on to the program. They have agreed to assess all at-risk patients according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Three facilities — Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, the Chinese Hospital, and Northeast Medical Services — have achieved 100% physician buy-in to the program.

Challenges remain, however. "Changing practice patterns of primary care physicians is the most difficult aspect of what we do," said Ted Fang, an Asian community organizer who helped get Hep B Free started and who now works with scores of other community organizers and healthcare professionals to steer the program. "That's because of all the responsibilities doctors already have and the limited time they have to spend with each patient."

The need for attention to hepatitis B is hardly at issue, Mr. Fang noted. The disease is the prime causative factor in about 80% of liver cancers, according to World Health Organization figures, and San Francisco has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation — about 14 cases per 100,000, compared with 9.5 cases per 100,000 in the rest of the country.

Hep B Free operates 7 stand-alone screening clinics and hosts community screening fairs that are aimed at reaching uninsured and underinsured patients.

A print and television advertising campaign that made its debut in May 2010 has helped bolster awareness of the Hep B Free program — but it has also raised a few eyebrows. Each ad features a different group of Asians — beauty queens, athletes, office workers, physicians — with the caption: "Which one deserves to die?"

Mr. Fang concedes it's a strong approach, but said the ads have produced the desired result: getting people talking about the disease, both among themselves and with their doctors. The print ads are being published in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and in English because one of the target groups is English-speaking physicians who might not be aware of the prevalence of the disease in the Asian community.

EMRs play a role in making the Hep B Free program a success. They are put to use in several phases of the program:

* For people who don't know their hepatitis B status, EMRs can be flagged to ensure that they are properly screened.

* For people being vaccinated, EMRs help track compliance to the full vaccination series (3 injections administered over 6 months).

* For people chronically infected, EMRs can generate reminders to contact patients for annual or semiannual monitoring.

"There is no way we can improve healthcare outcomes unless we can evaluate the effectiveness of current medical services," said Mr. Fang. "EMRs not only remind doctors to carry out important procedures, they also help evaluate which methods of prevention work best and which we need to improve."

Another major partner in administering the Hep B Free program is the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH). Janet Zola, MPH, is disease prevention and health promotion specialist there, and was a key player in developing the Hep B Free program.

That was just the start. According to Ms. Zola, "the DPH allows me to use a large percentage of my time to run the campaign, coordinate activities, and do strategic planning."

She added that she's learned several important lessons from running the program. "Resources can be leveraged without waiting for an infusion of large amounts of money," she explained. Getting cooperation from local hospitals is important, but community support has been essential to the success of the program so far, she asserted. "Volunteerism is alive and well," she added. "This is more than an Asian problem. It is an American problem."

The success of San Francisco Hep B Free hasn't gone unnoticed. Other California cities, plus Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC, are working to replicate the program.

That progress is good news to Baruch Blumberg, MD, PhD, who has a special interest in hepatitis B. He received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1976 for his discovery of the hepatitis B virus, and later developed the first effective vaccine for the disease. The vaccine became available in the early 1980s.

Dr. Blumberg was recently honored at a dinner reception jointly sponsored by the Hep B Free program and the Chinese Hospital.

Noting that vaccines and effective treatments for hepatitis B are now potentially available worldwide, Dr. Blumberg told Medscape Medical News that the key to reducing the toll of the disease lies in continuing to increase awareness.

"These good outcomes can only be fully achieved if the public, and particularly populations with a high rate of infection, including those of Asian origin, are aware of the problem and take part in programs that include vaccination, detection, and treatment," said Dr. Blumberg.

San Francisco's "Hep B Free" Campaign a Model For The Rest of the Country

Reappropriate.com article



I’ve heard a lot lately about San Francisco’s Hep B Free campaign, a public campaign to increase hepatitis B awareness and vaccination in the Bay Area. According to Hep B Free’s website, Hepatitis B — which results from infection by the HBV virus – causes liver cancer in 80% of diagnosed patients. Further, the bloodborne HBV virus can survive for more than 7 days outside of the body and is 100 times more infectious than HIV. Sadly, HBV infections are frequently missed by primary care physicians even though diagnosis only requires a simple blood test.

Currently, 1.25 million Americans are infected with HBV, of which roughly half are Asian American. In fact, HBV is one of the leading causes of death for the Asian American community; 1 in 10 Asian Americans are currently infected with Hepatitis B.

In a talk to the 2nd annual Asian American Health Conference, Dr. Francisco Sy of the NIH noted some of the cultural and linguistic barriers that appear to influence the high HBV infection rates amongst Asian Americans:

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Decrying that too many health academics do too much “helicopter” research in minority communities — i.e., go in and out to study the population in the short term without really getting to know them — Dr. Sy argued that “community is so important and we need to be treated as partners [in health studies] and not guinea pigs.”

Dr. Sy also contended that the stereotype which characterizes Asian Americans as the “model minority” has contributed to the dearth on health data for the group, a detriment for the community because data is what gets institutions like the NIH to give money to do further studies or finance programs.

“If there is no data,” said Dr. Sy, “there is no funding and communities suffer because Asian Americans are considered Ă”model minorities’ then people think they don’t have any [health] problems.”

The reality indeed is far from such assumptions. According to Dr. Sy, 21% of Asian Americans are uninsured and 12.5% live below the poverty line. Many also have language barriers which, along with the lack of financial resources, keep them form navigating America’s convoluted healthcare system.

Dr. Sy also mentioned that the group’s social and cultural practices — like putting the family over the self, holding a fatalistic view of illness or subscribing to more “traditional” types of healing (for Filipinos this include prayer and religious healing) and keeping topics like domestic violence and sexual orientation taboo have acted as barriers for a healthier Asian American community.

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On the West Coast, several campaigns have worked tirelessly within the community to try and break down some of these barriers. Ted Fang, of Asian Week, who is one of the vocal leaders of San Francisco Hep B Free discussed (in the video above) how the high insurance rates of Asian Americans — some 90% of Asian Americans have health insurance — means that it’s not just about improving access to healthcare. Instead, specifically tailored awareness campaigns aimed at both patients and primary care physicians, are needed to break down the cultural stigmas around Hepatitis B.

Not surprisingly, the strategy of actually collecting community-specific data about a disease that disproportionately affects said community actually works. Fang reports in the article that nearly two-thirds of San Francisco doctors have pledged to test at-risk patients for Hepatitis B, and the Hep B Free campaign in the Bay Area is now being considered for adoption in other cities around the country.

It’s great to see recognition for those community leaders who are in the trenches, working on a non-glamorous, but nonetheless important, problem like Hepatitis B. Furthermore, their efforts speak to the critical necessity for more large race-specific, epidemiological studies, so that we can start more dialogues on stigmatized health issues and begin to identify new ways to help save lives within the APIA community.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Controversial Ad Campaign Creates Headlines Nationwide

By Angela Pang | Read full article

SAN FRANCISCO – “Which one deserves to die?” – the controversial message featuring ten smiling Asian American physicians, beauty queens, basketball players, family members, and office workers has generated coast-to-coast buzz and headlines for the Hep B free movement.

Ten Bay Area physicians.


Prominent nationwide print, television, and radio news organizations have featured the provocative ad campaign which brings the issue of death, caused by liver cancer, to the forefront, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio, and PBS News Hour to and local and ethnic Bay Area media.

Sunny Teo, Executive Creative Director of DAE Advertising and the brainchild behind the campaign, says it was vital to have such a shocking message to alert the public that 1 in 10 Asian and Pacific Islanders is chronically infected with hepatitis B compared to 1 in 1,000 for non-Asians.

The campaign appeared in local ethnic and mainstream newspapers, billboards, and bus transit boards in May 2010 in honor of 15th Anniversary of National Hepatitis Awareness Month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month. The campaign addressed the biggest reason for the Hep B epidemic: general lack of awareness about the disease especially among the Asian community who considers discussing illness and death a taboo.

A Chinese version of the ad.


“We felt in order to have impact, our communication needed to directly address the issue of death with a sense of urgency that involved families and social circles,” says Teo, whose company offered their serivces pro bono to the SF Hep B Free Campaign. “Anything softer would have resulted in an ad campaign with messages that nobody paid attention to or cared about.”

The intended provocative nature of the campaign even caused concern among some of the volunteer community models in the photo shoots.

“For months, there were concerns and debates, internally at the agency and within the Sf Hep B Free steering committee, about repercussions. There were fears of negative reactions [from the community] up to the eve of the launch,” recalls Teo. “But we believe the true message behind this came through—that everyone deserves to live, no one deserves to die.”

Teo believes the reasons the ad campaign has successfully resonated with the public is because of a combination of factors – the hard to ignore 1 in 10 statistics, the possibility of deatlh – one of life’s most fundamental subjects, and the participatory approach of the ads.

Tagalog version of the ad


Grace Niwa, principal of Niwa Public Relations, suggests the ad campaign was such a hit because the models were “real people” from the Bay Area’s Asian American community.

“This brought the message close to home, since you could relate to the photo of someone that resembles a friend or family member,” says Niwa. “This also reminds the general public that anyone can be affected by Hep B and we should all work together to end Hep B and liver cancer.”

Niwa has been with SF Hep B Free since its inception in 2007 and says it has been very exciting to see Hep B Free evolve and become a national movement for Asian Pacific America. Her remarks were underlined by Ted Fang of the AsianWeek Foundation, a co-founder and Steering Committee member for SF Hep B Free. AsianWeek Foundation’s mission is to develop and promote the Asian American community.

“This is the first major market advertising campaign to feature all Asian American models, and Hep B Free is the largest organized social campaign ever for the Asian Pacific America,” said Fang. “Those are both milestones in the evolution of our community.”

Nobel Laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg who discovered the Hepatitis B Virus and developed the Hepatitis Vaccine will be honored by the Chinese Hospital and San Francisco’s Hepatitis B community. The honor will take place at the Hep B Free Coast to Coast dinner on September 16 at the Regency Grand Ballroom. For ticket or sponsorship information, please go to sfhepbfree.org/gala/.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Fighting Hep B Panel Discussion

By Angela Pang – September 7, 2010 (AsianWeek.com)

Ten percent of Asian & Pacific Islanders in the United States have chronic hepatitis B. With its sizable API population, nowhere is the HBV epidemic more pronounced and visible than in the Bay Area, which has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation.

Why are Asian-Pacific Islanders more prone to getting it than non-Asians? What social, political, economic, and genetic factors help explain why Asians are so at risk? What are considered best practices for addressing hepatitis B – locally, nationally, and internationally? How can community based models like the San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign do a better job of uniting the research, medical, and activist communities in fighting Hep B? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in a landmark public panel discussion on Wednesday September 15, at the Genentech Auditorium on the UCSF Mission Bay Campus located at 600 16th St. in San Francisco.

Featured speakers:

Dr. Baruch Blumberg was the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine Recipient for his discovery of the Hepatitis B virus and he later developed a diagnostic test and vaccine against it. He is currently Senior Advisor to the President of Fox Chase Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. This year, Dr. Blumberg is the 37th recipient of the Chinese Hospital Medical Staff Award.

Ted Fang is the Executive Director of the AsianWeek Foundation and has played a major role in planning, launching and directing the landmark San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, the largest, most intensive health care campaign for APIs in the U.S.

Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) is Majority Whip for the California State Assembly and the unofficial chairperson for San Francisco Hep B Free. She, herself is infected with hepatitis B, and is the author of California Assembly Bill 158.

Dr. Marion Peters (moderator) is Professor of Medicine and Chief of Hepatology Research at the U.C. San Francisco, where she holds the John V. Carbone, MD, Endowed Chair in Medicine. Her research focuses on Hepatitis B and C and she is very active in the Hep B Free Campaign.

Dr. Samuel So is the director of the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, the first non-profit organization in the U.S. that addresses the high incidence of hepatitis B and liver cancer in Asians and Asian Americans. ALC is a founding Steering Committee member of SF Hep B Free and an international expert on hepatitis B.

Co-sponsored by AsianWeek Foundation, Cathay Post #384 Chinese American Veterans, Chinese Hospital, Laotian American National Alliance, San Francisco Hepatitis B Collaborative (UCSF), and Wells Fargo Asian Connection.

To register, please call 415-421-8707; or visit https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=ffa8c4

WHEN:
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
5:30 pm Registration
6:00 pm Program

WHERE:
Genentech Auditorium
UCSF Mission Bay Campus
600 16th St.
San Francisco, CA

COST:
Students/Asia Society members $8
Non-members $15
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