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.

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.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nobel Laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg To Be Honored By San Francisco's Hepatitis B Community

Discoverer of Hepatitis B Virus & Developer of Hepatitis B Vaccine

SAN FRANCISCO (August 30, 2010) –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 http://sfhepbfree.org/gala/.

San Francisco’s Hep B Free has created an innovative ecosystem which includes over 50 private and public organizations whose goal is to turn San Francisco into the first hepatitis B city nationwide. Their successful public health model has inspired a national Hep B Free movement from coast to coast.

The 37th Annual Award will be bestowed by the Chinese Hospital in recognition of Dr. Blumberg’s contribution to improving the health of Asians. The night's event is presented by SF Hep B Free and Chinese Hospital, and produced by the AsianWeek Foundation. Past notable awardees include Dr. Samuel So, Director, Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, Dr. David Ho, Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and Dr. James Y. Suen, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arkansas & President Bill Clinton’s personal physician.

“As one of the first institutions in the U.S, to provide community screenings for Hepatitis B, honoring Dr. Blumberg is particularly meaningful for us,” said Dr. Joseph Woo, Chief of Staff, Chinese Hospital. “Without Dr. Blumberg’s extraordinary discovery, we would not have been able to help our community and save lives.”

Blumberg received the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of the Hepatitis B Virus, and in the development of the first vaccine to fight Hepatitis B. His research has had a major impact on worldwide public health. Blumberg is a professor of medicine and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. More recently, he has been involved in research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he is director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

“The means are available to prevent and treat Hepatitis B Virus infection,” 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, Hep B Free Campaign in San Francisco, along with others such as those of the Hepatitis B Foundation in Pennsylvania and other Hep B free initiatives across the nation are making the public aware of the problem and leading the efforts to solve it.”

Recently, the World Health Organization passed a resolution to mark World Hepatitis Day on July 28, Blumberg’s birthday.

About Hepatitis B (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
There are more than 43,000 new Hepatitis B cases in United States each year, with the greatest incidence among adults between ages 19–49 years old.Hepatitis B is one of the leading health disparities between Asians and non-Hispanic whites.Among the Asian population the predominant mode of transmission is from infected mother to child during the birthing process. Hepatitis B can also be spread through unprotected sex and shared needles.There is a safe and effective vaccine to protect against infection from Hepatitis B.

About Chinese Hospital
Chinese Hospital, a community-owned, not-for-profit organization, exists primarily to deliver quality health care in a cost effective way, responsive to the community's ethnic and cultural uniqueness. The hospital provides access to health care and acceptability to all socioeconomic levels. Chinese Hospital is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees, broadly representative of the community, and strives to assume a leadership role in all health matters. For more info, go to http://www.chinesehospital-sf.org.

About AsianWeek Foundation
AsianWeek Foundationis a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and develop Asian Pacific American identity, community and diversity. AWF does this by bringing people together through cultural events, media campaigns, consulting and innovative programs. AWF encourages the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity, and works to strengthen relations between all Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, newer and older generations of Asian Pacific Americans, and Asians and non-Asians.

About San Francisco Hep B Free
San Francisco Hep B Free is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between city government, private healthcare community organizations and businesses. The campaign’s goal is to make San Francisco Hepatitis B-free by (1) creating public and healthcare provider awareness about the importance of testing & vaccinating Asian and Pacific Islanders for Hepatitis B; (2) promoting routine Hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations within the primary care medical community; and (3) facilitating access to treatment for chronically infected individuals. The SF Hep B Free Steering Committee is made up of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University and the Asian Week Foundation. For more info, please go to www.sfhepbfree.org.

###

Media Contact:
Grace Niwa, Niwa Public Relations
(617) 299-9848
grace@niwapr.com

Nobel Laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg To Be Honored By San Francisco�s Hepatitis B Community

Article on U.S. ASIAN WIRE

Discoverer of Hepatitis B Virus & Developer of Hepatitis B Vaccine

August 27, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO -- (U.S. ASIAN WIRE) -- 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 http://www.sfhepbfree.org/gala/.

San Francisco's Hep B Free has created an innovative ecosystem which includes over 50 private and public organizations whose goal is to turn San Francisco into the first hepatitis B city nationwide. Their successful public health model has inspired a national Hep B Free movement from coast to coast.

The 37th Annual Award will be bestowed by the Chinese Hospital in recognition of Dr. Blumberg's contribution to improving the health of Asians. The night's event is presented by SF Hep B Free and Chinese Hospital, and produced by the AsianWeek Foundation. Past notable awardees include Dr. Samuel So, Director, Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, Dr. David Ho, Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and Dr. James Y. Suen, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arkansas & President Bill Clinton's personal physician.

"As one of the first institutions in the U.S, to provide community screenings for Hepatitis B, honoring Dr. Blumberg is particularly meaningful for us," said Dr. Joseph Woo, Chief of Staff, Chinese Hospital. "Without Dr. Blumberg's extraordinary discovery, we would not have been able to help our community and save lives."

Blumberg received the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of the Hepatitis B Virus, and in the development of the first vaccine to fight Hepatitis B. His research has had a major impact on worldwide public health. Blumberg is a professor of medicine and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. More recently, he has been involved in research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he is director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

"The means are available to prevent and treat Hepatitis B Virus infection," 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, Hep B Free Campaign in San Francisco, along with others such as those of the Hepatitis B Foundation in Pennsylvania and other Hep B free initiatives across the nation are making the public aware of the problem and leading the efforts to solve it."

Recently, the World Health Organization passed a resolution to mark World Hepatitis Day on July 28, Blumberg's birthday.

About Hepatitis B (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

* There are more than 43,000 new Hepatitis B cases in United States each year, with the greatest incidence among adults between ages 19�49 years old.

* Hepatitis B is one of the leading health disparities between Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

* Among the Asian population the predominant mode of transmission is from infected mother to child during the birthing process. Hepatitis B can also be spread through unprotected sex and shared needles.

* There is a safe and effective vaccine to protect against infection from Hepatitis B.

About Chinese Hospital
Chinese Hospital, a community-owned, not-for-profit organization, exists primarily to deliver quality health care in a cost effective way, responsive to the community's ethnic and cultural uniqueness. The hospital provides access to health care and acceptability to all socioeconomic levels. Chinese Hospital is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees, broadly representative of the community, and strives to assume a leadership role in all health matters. For more info, go to http://www.chinesehospital-sf.org.

About AsianWeek Foundation
AsianWeek Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and develop Asian Pacific American identity, community and diversity. AWF does this by bringing people together through cultural events, media campaigns, consulting and innovative programs. AWF encourages the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity, and works to strengthen relations between all Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, newer and older generations of Asian Pacific Americans, and Asians and non-Asians.

About San Francisco Hep B Free
San Francisco Hep B Free is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between city government, private healthcare community organizations and businesses. The campaign's goal is to make San Francisco Hepatitis B-free by (1) creating public and healthcare provider awareness about the importance of testing & vaccinating Asian and Pacific Islanders for Hepatitis B; (2) promoting routine Hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations within the primary care medical community; and (3) facilitating access to treatment for chronically infected individuals. The SF Hep B Free Steering Committee is made up of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University and the Asian Week Foundation. For more info, please go to www.sfhepbfree.org.

Contact:
Grace Niwa, Niwa Public Relations
646-644-5799
grace@niwapr.com