Message From Our President
Oisaeng Hong, PhD, RN

Dear AAPINA members,

 Happy spring to you all!  According to Chinese
 Zodiac Calendar, Year 2011 is “Year of the Rabbit”,
 and rabbits symbolize such character traits as creativity,
 compassion, and sensitivity. Rabbits are also friendly,
 outgoing and prefer the company of others. Rabbits are
 a well-known symbol in the Western civilization as well.
 Their important role in the Easter festivities as the
 "Easter bunny" can be attributed to their determined
 nature, with which they can successfully adapt to their  
 environment, and prosper in their habitat. It is
 remarkable how these two different cultures picked up
 on two different, yet important set of traits the rabbit
possesses. I hope all of us observe and master not just some, but all of these traits to be fulfill missions of AAPINA together. During the past months, many events occurred:

1. Meeting with Dr. Samuel So (Director) in Asian Liver Center at Stanford University to discuss collaborations to reduce serious liver disease including Hepatitis B and liver cancer, which is disproportionally high among the AAPIs;
2. Celebration of our 8th Annual conference in Houston;
3. Launching a collaborative project with NCEMNA on Genetics and Genomics in Nursing Practice;
4. Enrollment of first organization member-National Association of Indian Nurses of American (NAINA) joined became the first organization member of AAPINA. This brings over 600 members of NAINA to AAPINA;
5. and involvement in AAPI stakeholder group.

If I may elaborate on the last point, in early March, Department of Human Health and Services (DHHS) Assistant Secretary Dr. Howard Koh and Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr. Garth Graham hosted Asian American (AA) and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) community stakeholders’ meeting in DC. As the president of AAPINA, I was invited to join the meeting along with representatives of over 15 organizations in AANHPI community. This is the first time we are included in the larger AAPI community. The group worked together and made recommendations to address issues concerning the AA and NHPI community and submitted to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI). Based on this recommendation, DHHS has identified four overall-arching health concerns and issued a plan to improve the well-being of AANHPIs.

The four sections include:

1. Prevent, treat and control Hepatitis B Viral infections in AANHPI communities;

2.  Improve data collection in AANHPI communities;

3. Align the healthcare workforce with needs of AANHPI communities; and

4.  Improve health conditions and access to health care services for NHPI.

For further information, please visit

http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=573

It is expected to have regular stakeholders’ meetings in DC. I will make sure that AAPINA’s representation is visible at future meetings. This is an exciting time when your participation and devotion to the growth of AAPINA and health and wellbeing of people whom we serve is particularly critical. 

Best wishes.