The bird flu (H5N1) is becoming a greater concern among people who track infectious diseases.

A recent article in Nature explains why changes in how the disease spreads could affect humans, and a new LibGuide from UNC Health Sciences Library collects key resources to help understand the current bird flu situation.

To learn more, check out the ADL's Highlighted Resources for February 15:
Will bird flu spark a human pandemic? Scientists say the risk is rising
Avian Influenza - "Bird Flu" (H5N1) Guide

Food insecurity for children is a serious issue that can have lifelong impacts on health.

Dear Healthcare Partners, 

In an effort to better address the significant shortage of health care workers, Northwest AHEC is partnering with the NC Center on the Workforce for Health (NC AHEC, Sheps Center, NC IOM), the NC Chamber Foundation to develop and implement a plan to create the next generation of healthcare clinicians and staff.

The Northwest AHEC Practice Support Team was awarded a grant from NC Medicaid supporting five different online self-paced learning activities.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) rates are increasing earlier and more quickly than usual in 2022, leading to higher risks for infants and young children, older adults, and adults with chronic conditions.

For over 30 years, the NC Area Health Education Center RN Refresher Program has helped thousands of nurses rejuvenate their careers and go back to work. Now more than ever, our state needs nurses. The program is offering a discount for the program through April 30th. 

This series, formerly the Advanced Medical Home (AMH) Webinar Series, is designed to support practice managers, quality improvement professionals, care coordinators, and others within your practice who are responsible for meeting the NC Medicaid Managed Care provider requirements. All webinars are from 5:30-6:30 PM. Join us for one or for all!



Thursday, February 24 | Evaluating Medicaid Transformation
Thursday, March 24 | COVID-19 Vaccination in the Medicaid Population
Thursday, April 28 | Topic coming soon!
Thursday, May 26 | Topic coming soon!

Is your practice interested in getting help from an interprofessional team of graduate level health professions students participating in a leadership group through the North Carolina Medical Society call the Future Clinical Leaders College? 

Please join NC Medicaid Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Shannon Dowler and Chief of Quality Kelly Crosbie, along with all the NC Medicaid Managed Care Plan CMOs and Behavioral Health (BH) Directors, for the November Back Porch Chat on Thursday, November 18 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

In addition to timely hot topic updates, this webinar will focus on Behavioral Health Collaborative Care Codes and how we can support a practice's ability to help us achieve the goal of integrated physical and behavioral healthcare for Medicaid beneficiaries in NC. The Managed Care Plan BH Directors will be speaking to key aspects of successfully using specific BH collaborative care codes, and colleagues in practice will share how codes are used in primary care including best practices, lessons learned, specific use cases/scenarios, and more!

The third webinar in the Quality & Population Health Webinar series, formerly the Advanced Medical Home (AMH) Webinar series, will be held November 16 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and will focus on PCP Assignments and Working with Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs). Following the presentations, there will be time for Q&A. This webinar series is designed to support providers, practice managers, quality improvement professionals, care managers, and CINs. We hope you can join us!