OVERVIEW OF NATIONAL BOARDThe mission of the National Board is to foster improved healthcare outcomes, patient safety and patient/provider communication, by elevating the standards for and quality of medical interpreting through a nationally recognized and accredited certification for medical interpreters.The CMI certification program is governed by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (National Board), an independent division of the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA). The purposes of the National Board are to:·         Develop, organize, oversee and promote a national medical interpreter certification program in all languages.·         Promote patients and providers working with credentialed medical interpreters who have met minimal national standards to provide accurate and safe interpretation.·         Ensure credibility of national certification by striving to comply with national accreditation standards including transparency, inclusion, and access. The Board of Directors of the National Board consists of 12 voting members that include medical interpreters, a health care provider, industry representatives, and a public member. Initial Board members were selected by a public process and independent selection committee. Subsequently, Board members are recruited through a Nominating Committee process and are elected by the members of the National Board. To see the National Board click here. 

This blog post from the North Carolina Medical Board discusses issues around physician burnout. The blog states: "Burnout among physicians has reached epidemic proportions since it was first described among human services workers in the 1970s. When physicians experience overload, loss of control (autonomy) and a lack of reward (perceived or real) for their contributions, their risk for emotional exhaustion, otherwise known as the burnout syndrome, is astronomical. When physicians begin the downward spiral into burnout, they no longer contribute with their leadership and motivational energy. Instead, they become needy and unintentionally sap energy away from the group. Worse, this syndrome is highly contagious and can systematically infect a whole practice or clinic by reducing meaningful contact among its individual members."

The Journal of Clinical Ethics. The Diagnosis of Dying by George F. Davis. Fall 2009. Volume 20, Number 3

¡Cuídate! is an educational resource on the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries at work. This comic is in Spanish, English and Haitian Creole.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re proud to announce that our Safe Pregnancy and Birth mobile app is now available for free as a beta release for Android phones.  Click here to download it now from the Google Play app store.  In January, we released our app for iPhones; click here to download it from the Apple store.  If you don’t have an Android or iPhone, you can preview the app here

This resource (in English and Spanish) gives a basic overview of what breast cancer is and some of the general terms used to describe breast cancer.

Patient education handout in English and Spanish on colorectal cancer from the American Cancer Society.

The Health Center Recruitment and Retention Review Tool is designed to support on-going recruitment and retention of qualified clinical staff at health centers funded by the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act as amended by the Health Centers Consolidation Act of 1996.

Summary of the June 2012 article from the New York Times on American attitudes toward immigration.

This article describes an excellent integrated behavioral health program at a Federally Funded Health Center. The full abstract from the article is as follows: In a progressively complex and fragmented health care system and in response to the need to provide whole-person, quality care to greater numbers of patients than ever before, primary care practices throughout the United States have turned their attention and efforts to integrating behavioral health into their standard service-delivery models. With few resources and little guidance, systems struggle to gather the support required to establish effective integrated programs. Based on first-hand experience, we describe a working integrated primary care model, currently utilized in a large community health center system in Colorado, that encompasses universal screening, consultation, psychotherapy, and psychological testing. With appreciation for the way an organization’s unique circumstances inform the best approach for that particular organization, we highlight the clinical level and system-level variables that we consider necessary for successful practice development and address how our behavioral health program operates despite funding limitations. We conclude that organizations that aim for integrated primary care must mobilize leadership to implement systemic changes while making difficult decisions about program development, financing, staffing, and interagency relationships.