Critical Opportunities For Public Health Policies

Participants selected prior to the session make a 5-minute pitch to the audience and a panel of experts on critical opportunities for public health policies that improve screening of young children for developmental disabilities. The audience is polled about their favorite opportunities and each of the panelists offers their feedback. The audience may ask questions of the panelists and presenters, and a final vote is taken to determine which Critical Opportunity is the most favorable. Critical Opportunities

Submissions

What are Critical Opportunities Sessions?

Critical Opportunities sessions are designed based on the Public Health Law Research (PHLR) model, as seen at their 2012 Annual Meeting.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) plans to host three sessions in the coming months at major conferences, with the goal being to creatively identify public health policies and the public health research gaps that may be impeding their success.

Prior to these sessions, we ask participants to make submissions of public health policies that improve screening of young children for developmental disabilities and that they feel meet the criteria to be considered a Critical Opportunity. The submissions are judged and selected by the NCBDDD staff and experts in the field of public health and public health law. Selected participants make a timed 5-minute pitch to the audience and a panel of experts.  Following the presentations, the audience is polled about their favorite opportunities and each of the panelists then offers their feedback. The audience is able to ask questions of the panelists and presenters, and a final vote is taken to determine which Critical Opportunity is the most favorable.

Please note: CDC/NCBDDD is looking to identify opportunities for potential public health research. Once the Critical Opportunities are identified, we can turn to assessing what research is needed to evaluate the issues. We expect that some of the Critical Opportunity candidates will be well-supported by existing evidence, while others will be politically feasible and/or address a major public health problem but still need substantial research to determine effectiveness.

Watch example pitches on the PHLR Critical Opportunities YouTube page.

We plan to host Critical Opportunities sessions at these conferences:

• Autism Society's 44th Annual Conference, July 10-13, 2013 (submissions due by: May 31, 2013)
• Acceptance Pending: National Council of State Legislators, 2013 Legislative Summit , August 12-15, 2013 (submissions due by: June 1, 2013)
• Acceptance Pending: Association of University Centers on Disabilities 2013 Annual Conference, November 16-20, 2013 (submissions due by August 1, 2013)

If you are attending one of these conferences and are interested in making a submission, please follow the criteria below.

How do I prepare my submission?

Each Critical Opportunity submission is made using the designated slide template. By following the instructions on the slides, each presentation will meet these four criteria:

1. Define the problem & propose a specific policy solution. Describe the scale of the problem — the burden of disease defined in terms of prevalence, severity, disability or disparities. Explain the ways a public health policy intervention could be used to help ease this problem. A public health policy intervention can be an advancement and implementation of public health law, regulations, or voluntary practices that influence systems development, organizational change, and individual behavior to promote improvements in health.
2. What is the evidence supporting the policy? Share evidence that supports using policy to solve the problem and the magnitude of effect we could expect from using the policy, based on the evidence.
3. Where are the research gaps? Explain whether there are any identified research gaps--areas that need further research, where that research could specifically fill a gap needed to move a policy forward.
4. Describe the feasibility of the policy. Offer some thoughts about how easily the suggested policy change could be implemented, considering both legal and political constraints. 

A Critical Opportunity submission may not use any slides other than those provided in the template slide set (totaling 5 slides). You may neither add additional slides nor create duplicate slides.

How do I submit my pitch?

To make your submission, please follow these steps:

1. E-mail cdcncbdddfeedback@cdc.gov to request the template slide set. The subject line should be: “Critical Opportunities Template Request – [Provide the conference name]”.
2. Complete the presentation according to the instructions on each slide.
3. Once complete, attach the presentation to an email addressed to cdcncbdddfeedback@cdc.gov.  The subject line should be: "Critical Opportunities Submission -- [Provide the conference name]". 
4. Be mindful of the deadlines for each event. The first page provides deadlines for each upcoming Critical Opportunity event.
5. If you have any questions about how to make your submission, please email cdcncbdddfeedback@cdc.gov or call 404.498.3935.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will gain a better understanding of potential policy solutions to improve screening of young children for developmental disabilities.

2. Participants will be exposed to an innovative strategy to engage stakeholders in creatively identifying public health policies and the public health research gaps that may be impeding their success.