Public health’s hot topics on APHA 2023 agenda
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* Michele Late

![Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/nathealth/53/8/3.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/53/8/3.2/F1)

Key events at APHA’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta will focus on public health’s most urgent issues, including rebuilding trust.

Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography

Public health’s recent successes and ongoing challenges will be explored in-depth during APHA’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo this fall.

From rebuilding trust in public health to diversifying public health education, major sessions at APHA 2023 will examine public health’s hottest topics and spotlight pathways to improvement.

Marked as “key events” in the online meeting program, over a dozen major sessions will feature public health experts from government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofits, the business sector and more. Many of the key events will feature post-session “coffee talks,” where attendees can meet speakers and discuss what they have learned.

“With more than 12,000 professionals from across the field convening in one place, the APHA meeting is the ideal forum to exchange ideas and lay the groundwork for public health progress,” Jolene McNeil, CMP, DES, CEM, APHA’s director of event operations, told *The Nation’s Health*.

To be held Nov. 12-15, the APHA Annual Meeting will be focused around the theme of “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Overcoming Social and Ethical Challenges.”

Rachel Levine, MD, U.S. assistant secretary for health, will help kick off the meeting by keynoting the Sunday, Nov. 12, opening session. The event will include presentation of the CDC Foundation’s Fries Prize for Improving Public Health. This year’s recipients are biochemist Katalin Karikó, PhD, co-inventor of the modified mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines, and renowned disease detective Anne Schuchat, MD, who has served for decades on the front lines of outbreak response — including as U.S. assistant surgeon general and CDC principal deputy director.

Declining U.S. life expectancy rates, which dropped to a 25-year low in 2021, will take center stage at a mid-afternoon key session on Sunday. Speakers such as Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, and Mary Bassett, MD, MPH, a professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will discuss factors fueling the decline and present steps to reverse it.

Another can’t-miss key event on Sunday is a session on the promises and perils of public health in the age of artificial intelligence. The session, hosted by Abdul El-Sayed, MD, DPhil, will be recorded live for an episode of the America Dissected podcast.

An afternoon session on Monday, Nov. 13, will explore the July U.S. Supreme Court decision against affirmative action in college admissions, which is expected to have ramifications for the public health workforce and beyond. Key sessions on Tuesday, Nov. 14, will delve into the economic burdens of health inequity, public health workforce challenges and more. And events on the meeting’s last day, Wednesday, Nov. 15, will look at the role of technology in addressing public health problems and ways to transform the U.S. public health system.

The full lineup of APHA 2023 events is available in the online program. With hundreds of events, attendees will have a wealth of options to fill their schedules.

Attendees should leave time to visit the always-popular public health expo — featuring schools of public health, publishers, health agencies, nonprofit organizations and more. The expo will be home to the meeting’s physical activity center, poster sessions, hundreds of exhibits and other attractions.

Public health professionals who are unable to attend the Annual Meeting in Atlanta can opt for a digital version of APHA 2023. The APHA Digital Meeting will include recordings from scientific sessions and live online broadcasts of the key sessions, including the opening and closing.

To register for APHA 2023, visit [www.apha.org/annualmeeting](http://www.apha.org/annualmeeting).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association