APHL Recognized as a Washington Post 2023 Top Workplace

Graphic announcing APHL as a Washington Post Top Workplace including a collage of photos featuring APHL staff.

We are proud to announce that APHL has again been named one of The Washington Post’s Top Workplaces in the Washington, DC area! Selection for this award is based on employee feedback gathered through an anonymous third-party survey, which measured several aspects of workplace culture including alignment, execution and connection.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) selection is based on employee feedback gathered through an anonymous third-party survey. In survey responses, staff recognized APHL as mission-driven and member-focused; inclusive, equitable, caring and supportive of staff; forward-thinking and proactive in meeting challenges; and offering a flexible and supportive environment where staff are eager to collaborate to make a positive difference.

“We are honored to again be recognized as a top workplace,” said Scott J. Becker, APHL chief executive officer. “It speaks volumes about the people-centered culture we’ve created and the extraordinary team of professionals who support and sustain that culture every day.”

“As a membership organization, it is truly gratifying to know that APHL is a place where employees feel engaged, are committed to success and can do their best work,” said Daphne Ware, APHL president and director of the Mississippi Public Health Laboratory. “That same spirit and energy translates into exceptional support and service for our member laboratories. As a member, I am grateful for the leadership APHL staff provide in helping strengthen the public health laboratory community.”

More than 550 Washington-area companies were surveyed. The top companies were selected based on survey responses from more than 75,000 employees on topics ranging from employee development to innovation.

APHL Quick Facts:

  • APHL’s headquarters is currently in Silver Spring, MD. We also have offices, staff and consultants in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Oman, Vietnam and India.
  • We currently have 192 US-based staff and 40 international staff.
  • In 2023 to date, APHL’s turnover rate is 4.3%. We expect it be just under 9% for the year. Our turnover rate is considerably lower than the industry norm of 18-21%.

This is the second time that APHL participated in the survey and the second time the organization has been recognized as a Top Workplace. The first recognition came in 2021.

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Through humor and music, ZDoggMD calls for a better health care system

Dr. Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD) stands on stage and speaks to 2023 APHL Annual Conference attendees.

By Melanie Padgett Powers, writer

In classic literature and mainstream movies, the lead character is often on a “hero’s journey,” which involves adventure, crossing the threshold into the unknown, trials and failures, and temptations. Sometimes there is death and rebirth and eventually a revelation with knowledge, atonement and a return to the ordinary world.

The US health care system has been going through a hero’s journey, said Zubin Damania, MD, at the at the 2023 APHL Annual Conference May 24 “Dr. Katherine Kelley Session.” Damania is a former hospitalist who performs as ZDoggMD, creating music videos, original songs and parodies about health care in the US. His videos have more than a billion views across Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and he also hosts the podcast The ZDoggMD Show.

Damania brought his comedic wit, rapping skills and videos to the closing session of the APHL conference, as he described the evolution of the US health care system and outlined his vision for Health 3.0.

He started by pumping up the crowd a rap honoring laboratory professionals, while his music video — shot in a laboratory with hospital staff — played on the big screen. Afterward, he shared that his hero growing up was Weird Al Yankovic, the musician who writes and performs parodies of popular songs.

However, Damania is the son of two Indian immigrant physician parents — his dad was a primary care physician and his mom was a psychiatrist. So, in high school, telling his dad he wanted to be an artist like Weird Al was not going to fly. In Damania’s retelling, his dad said, “Being a professional clown won’t put naan on the table. Come to my clinic, see what I do, and then you will see what you’re going to do.”

Luckily, at the clinic, Damania was intrigued by his dad’s interactions with his patients. He now describes this as Health 1.0, a time before managed care when health care was about relationships, taking time to care for patients, intuition and listening.

“This was the cottage industry of health care in that era in the 20th century,” Damania said. “And I really deeply fell in love with it. But it had its downsides, which we all know, right? It’s kind of a fee-for-service mill where supply creates demand. It was truly a patriarchy. … This had a lot of shadow, this Health 1.0, and part of the shadow was this overall repression of the suffering that it was generating.”

Then, the health system went on a hero’s journey, a call to adventure: “We need quality. We need a better electronic health record because we can’t read my dad’s writing, and we need measures to understand whether these things are actually happening in a good way,” Damania said. “That was called managed care and other things, and I call it Health 2.0.”

Those in power decided that using the technologies and systems of business would create an affordable, effective health care system for populations and individuals, he explained. This included “the carrots and sticks of incentives, pay for performance.”

He continued, “Let’s make an electronic health record that can get us to get all the data, analyze it and then do the right thing. How has that worked out for us? … The electronic health record, it turns out, was an electronic cash register that couldn’t talk to the cash register across the street. … We’ve turned the beautiful human relationship of [Health] 1.0 into a commodity, into an assembly line where the inputs are humans and technology, and the outputs are purportedly health, but we’re all turned into commodities.”

The Elephant and Rider

Damania shared the analogy from psychologist Jonathan Haidt about the elephant and the rider. Haidt said human brains have two sides: the emotional “elephant” side and the analytical, rational “rider” side. We think the rider is controlling the elephant, but it’s really the other way around. And this illustrates the challenges with behavior change — including how the health system works (or doesn’t) and how individuals respond to recommendations that would improve their health.

After this realization, Damania secretly created ZDoggMD to try to motivate behavior change through music and humor. The jig was up with his Stanford supervisors, though, after he appeared on the local news for his song “Manhood in the Mirror” about self-exams for testicular cancer, a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.”

After singing the hilarious intro to the song for the APHL audience, Damania said, “Joking aside, we’re on to a formula here that in order to motivate people, especially in public health, you’ve got to move their hearts and then direct their consciousness.”

This led him to write a song about speaking to your loved ones about your end-of-life wishes. No humor here. It’s a melancholic, yet truth-filled, song set to the tune of “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem and Rihanna.

After Damania sang and rapped the song for the audience, he explained how he used the elephant-rider concept to motivate behavior change: Toward the end of the song, he sings, “It always seems too soon, until it’s too late,” which is directed toward our emotional elephant side. Then, he followed that up with one directive: “Talk about your end-of-life wishes now with those you love.

“That’s all. No living wills, none of this stuff,” he said. “Just start with that. So, move the elephant, gently direct the rider.”

Taking the concept further, he explained that Health 1.0 that his father practiced was the elephant side of medicine, while Health 2.0 was the rider. Damania believes that we can bring about a better Health 3.0 by combining Health 1.0 — beautiful relationships, clinician leadership, less politics, less bureaucracy — with Health 2.0 — quality, technology, processes.

“So in the end, the hero’s journey is us waking up, that if all our elephants stampede at the same time, whoa, it would change everything. … We have a lot to do, but it’s happening. We’re waking up. We can do it. We have models to help us do it. We have motivated people who care. The pandemic taught us a lot about what should and shouldn’t be done and why this understanding of human behavior is crucial.”

Damania ended his presentation with a huge thank you to the public health laboratory community: “Thank you so much for everything you have done and continue to do for the health of other human beings and this population of Americans that desperately need you. They need your hero’s journey. They need you to show up authentically as who you are.”

Melanie Padgett Powers is a freelance writer and editor specializing in health care and public health.

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2023 APHL Annual Conference – Day 3

A speaker smiles while standing at a podium and another speaker sits alongside.

The third day of the 2023 APHL Annual Conference did not disappoint! We started with early-morning roundtable sessions, followed by the annual awards ceremony, more fascinating speakers, and even a visit from the COVID detection dogs. Check out the highlights below and don’t forget to join the conversation online using #APHL!

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Ebola detection and testing rapidly expands in Uganda and US

A presentation slide showing the location of the 2022 Sudan ebolavirus outbreak. The speaker is shown to the right.

Ebola detection and testing rapidly expands in Uganda and US

By Melanie Padgett Powers, writer

A partnership between Uganda and US public health professionals was instrumental in responding to the 2022 Ebola outbreak in Africa. Furthermore, lessons learned from that response helped update guidance on how the US would respond to suspected Ebola cases arriving on US shores.

Ebola is a highly transmissible disease with a mortality rate of 50 to 90 percent without treatment. When people hear “Ebola,” it’s usually referring to the Zaire ebolavirus, explained Trevor Shoemaker, PhD, MPH, at the 2023 APHL Annual Conference May 23 session, “Preparedness and Response Domestically and Abroad—the 2022 Ebola Outbreak” in Sacramento, CA. Shoemaker is team lead, epidemiology, surveillance, clinical and health education, Viral Special Pathogens Branch, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Zaire virus has been responsible for the majority of Ebola outbreaks in recent years and is one of four ebolaviruses known to cause human infection. However, when Ebola broke out in Uganda in September 2022, it was the Sudan ebolavirus.

For the past 12 years, the CDC has been supporting Uganda’s Viral Hemorrhagic Fever (VHF) Surveillance System. “But we’ve been engaged in Uganda ever since the first Sudan virus outbreak detected in the year 2000,” Shoemaker said. For the VHF program, the CDC assisted Uganda’s Ministry of Health, through the Uganda Virus Research Institute, to establish a laboratory to perform in-country diagnostics and enhance the epidemiological and clinical surveillance in the country.

“Most of the things we helped implement were to improve reporting capability, improve the laboratory capacity, detect incident cases very rapidly and report those to the national level so they could take action,” Shoemaker said. “We improved the capability to respond, so this would be quick outbreak investigation and containment.”

They also trained Ugandan health workers on how to properly don personal protective equipment, take a blood specimen for testing, fill out the case report form and safely ship samples to the national laboratory.

The program, which has tested over 20,000 clinical samples, has greatly increased the detection of VHF outbreaks in Uganda and the region, Shoemaker said. Since the program began, it has detected more outbreaks than in the previous 10 years. “It has also reduced the time between initial report of suspected outbreaks and laboratory confirmation by quite a number of days,” he said. The laboratory can provide results within six to 12 hours of receiving the sample and can do confirmatory testing within 24 hours.

In the 2022 Ebola outbreak, there were 164 total cases in nine Ugandan districts, with 77 deaths, which is a 47 percent case fatality rate.

Ebola preparation in the US

Although the risk of Ebola being imported to the US last year was considered low, Shoemaker said, the CDC activated its emergency response structure. CDC Ebola Response Teams were ready to travel to states if needed. CDC updated its guidance for health care workers in the US for suspected Ebola cases. The APHL Biosafety and Biosecurity Committee also updated its Ebola guidance, which was from 2015.

In the US, the CDC oversees the Laboratory Response Network (LRN), a system of approximately 120 US laboratories—including all 50 state public health laboratories—that detect and respond to biological threats.

Before the 2022 Uganda Ebola outbreak, only eight LRN laboratories had the capability to test for the Sudan ebolavirus. Within a month, that was expanded to 27 LRN laboratories, as well as 10 regional emerging special pathogen treatment centers, Shoemaker said. Now, there are 34 laboratories able to test for Sudan virus (as well as the Marburg virus, another severe viral hemorrhagic fever).

To test for the Sudan ebolavirus, the LRN laboratories use the commercial product BioFire FilmArray and the Warrior Panel, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017. CDC uses a real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay, similar to what many LRN laboratories already have to test for the Zaire virus. The CDC’s Sudan test is currently undergoing approval to send out to LRN laboratories.

In 2022 in the US, the CDC had clinical consultations for 35 ill returning travelers from the outbreak region and performed tests on three people. All were negative. Compare that to January 2017 to December 2021, Shoemaker said, when there were seven Ebola virus outbreaks and the US performed testing on only nine ill travelers.

Melanie Padgett Powers is a freelance writer and editor specializing in health care and public health.

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APHL Honors 2023 Annual Award Winners

2023 APHL Award winners sit on a stage posing with their awards

For Immediate Release

Sacramento, CA, May 24, 2023 – The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for outstanding achievements in laboratory science, creative approaches to solving today’s public health challenges and exemplary support of laboratories serving the public’s health. Awardees were honored on May 24, 2023 during the APHL Annual Conference in Sacramento, CA. Congratulations to all award winners!

The following awards were presented:

Lifetime Achievement Award – This award recognizes individuals who have established a history of distinguished service to APHL, made significant contributions to the advancement of public health laboratory science or practice, exhibited leadership in the field of public health and/or positively influenced public health policy on a national or global level. This is not a retirement award, but a true Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gold Standard Award – The award is given to an APHL member who makes or has made significant contributions to the technical advancement of public health laboratory science and/or practice.

Silver Award – This award honors a laboratorian with 10 to 15 years of service in a Governmental public health laboratory (either Public Health or Environmental/Agricultural laboratory). The honoree will be recognized as a leader both within their home laboratory as well as external to their laboratory.

On the Front Line Award – This award honors an individual or laboratory outside of the APHL membership who makes significant contributions to the advancement of public health laboratory science and/or practice.

Emerging Leader Award – The Emerging Leader Award honors an individual whose leadership has been instrumental in one or more advances in laboratory science, practice, management, policy or education early in their career. This year there are two Emerging Leader Award winners.

Leadership in Biosafety and Biosecurity Award – This award honors a laboratorian with over 10 years of related service in the field of biosafety and biosecurity in a state and/or local public health laboratory. The honoree will be recognized as a leader both within their home laboratory as well as external to their laboratory (for example, by serving in a leadership role in committees/taskforces at the national level).

​​​​​​LEAD Award – This award, established in 2021, recognizes the legacy of Eva J. Perlman, APHL’s first chief learning officer, who over three decades helped shape the public health laboratory workforce and represented the attributes of ‘serving those who have served.’ This award honors an individual who exhibits the attributes of a leader, encourager, advocate and developer, and who has 10 or more years of service in a state, local or territorial public health laboratory, or other public health laboratory partner. This year there are two LEAD Award winners.

Champion of the Public Health Laboratory Award – This award recognizes federal, state and local elected officials or executive branch employees who have recognized the importance of state and local governmental laboratories that perform testing of public health significance either through support of legislation or federal agency decisions.

Presidential Award – The APHL Presidential Award was selected by Dr. Daphne Ware during her Presidential year (2022-2023) for the significant contributions that were made to the association’s work to promote policies that strengthen public health laboratories.

  • Judith Monroe, president and chief executive officer, CDC Foundation

Healthiest Laboratory Award – This award is given to an APHL member laboratory that is committed to safety, environmental process, environmental policy and employee health and wellness.

Thomas E. Maxson Education, Training and Workforce Development Award – This award was established in August of 1998 in memory of Dr. Maxson, and honors an APHL member who is a public health or clinical laboratory practitioner, trainer or educator who has made significant contributions to public health laboratory practice by creating, delivering or developing continuing education opportunities, programs, policies or practices for the laboratory community.

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The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) works to strengthen laboratory systems serving the public’s health in the U.S. and globally. APHL’s member laboratories protect the public’s health by monitoring and detecting infectious and foodborne diseases, environmental contaminants, terrorist agents, genetic disorders in newborns and other diverse health threats. Learn more at www.aphl.org.

Contact Michelle Forman at 240.485.2793 or michelle.forman@aphl.org

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2023 APHL Annual Conference – Day 2

An APHL staff person leads attendees in line dancing

From the Sunrise Walk and Innovate! Sessions to the Networking Reception, day two of APHL 2023 was chock-full of presentations, networking, activities and fun! Check out the action from our second day of APHL 2023, featuring attendee reactions, photos, videos and social media posts.

@publichealthlabs

Public Health Laboratory Fellow, Hyder stopped bu the #APHL Experience Booth to share what he’a been up to at the Annual Conference. This is Hyder’s fifth time at the conference! #APHLFellowship

♬ original sound – APHL

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2023 APHL Annual Conference – Day 1

Welcome to the more than 1,200 people who joined the 2023 APHL Annual Conference in-person in Sacramento and to the over 300 who joined virtually! Today was an exciting first day. Check out some of the photos, videos and social media highlights from the first day of APHL 2023. Join the conversation online using #APHL!

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New Lab Matters: The need for LRN modernization through the lens of an outbreak

Image of the cover of the spring 2023 edition of Lab Matters magazine

The Laboratory Response Network was established in 1999 as a network of laboratories that could prepare for and respond to bioterrorism. But it was created in a world before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a world without social media and a world with a blossoming internet that ordinary people were still discovering. As the world changes and (dis)information moves at the speed of electricity, we examine why the LRN needs to innovate to meet a host of new and emerging threats in this issue’s feature article.

Also in this issue:

Read the full issue.

Subscribe and get Lab Matters delivered to your inbox, or read Lab Matters on your mobile device.

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Public Health Matters Signs Off

The words "thank you" spelled out in typesetting blocks.

CDC is ending the Public Health Matters blog. The agency will not publish new content to the blog after this post. We will continue to publish translations of existing posts and provide an archive of past content.

The Public Health Matters blog started in May 2008. The first entry, “New Brain Disease is Blowing Minds,” was about an investigation into an unusual cluster of Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy (PIN).

Slaughterhouse workers in Minnesota and Indiana were experiencing symptoms that ranged in severity from minor weakness and numbness to paralysis of their legs. Early findings suggested the patients all worked at or had “regular contact” with an area in the facility where workers processed pig heads. The investigation was ongoing.(1)

The Public Health Matters blog started out as the personal log of Dr. Ali Kahn. He was director of the then Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.

The early posts to the Public Health Matters blog are a window into the work of an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and a career focused on bioterrorism, global health, and emerging infectious diseases. He followed his first post with brief communiques about a Rift Valley Fever outbreak in Madagascar and a salmonella outbreak in the American Southwest.(2, 3)

In the almost 15 years and 500 posts since its launch, the Public Health Matters blog has evolved into a regularly updated website. Over that same period, it also welcomed new authors who contributed posts on a wide range of emergency readiness- and response-related topics.

The blog gained wide attention in 2011 and 2012 when a dozen posts likening readiness for a “zombie apocalypse” to that of other public health threats. These captured the attention of readers and put the blog into the wide arena of public discourse.

We’ve tried with every post from the first to the last, “Emergency Preparedness: Batteries Not Included,” to help readers prepare for the consequences and challenges of an emergency response. These consequences and challenges can include stress, loss, and social isolation; discrimination; supply shortages; and service disruptions.

For example,

The purpose of every post was the same regardless of the author or subject matter. The aim was always to offer evidence-based guidance you can use to protect yourself and others from threats to health.

The Public Health Matters blog is ending but neither the posts nor CDC’s commitment to helping build a prepared and resilient Nation are going away. We will continue to explore new and creative ways to engage with you on topics that affect individual resilience. You can continue to learn about personal health preparedness and ways to prepare your health on the CDC website.

Thank you for your support of Public Health Matters.

References

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm57e131a1.htm
  2. https://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2008/05/mosquitoes-the-worlds-deadliest-animals-2/
  3. https://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2008/11/salmonella-saintpaul-outbreak-epilogue/

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (https://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

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Emergency Preparedness: Batteries Not Included

Stack of alkaline batteries size AAA with selective focus.

Batteries power many of the things we use and rely on every day. They might also be the only available power source in an emergency.

Being prepared to power your personal need devices—things like cellphones, medical devices, and assistive technologies—during a power outage is a step toward individual resilience.

Planning for power outages can include creating an emergency supply of batteries and other power sources. Here are some things to know about batteries that can help you create a supply that meets your needs.

Battery Types & Kinds

Contemporary batteries come in two primary types (primary and secondary) and kinds (alkaline and lithium).(1) Other kinds of batteries are available to power small and low-power devices.

Primary vs. Secondary

The defining difference between primary and secondary batteries is the number of uses you get from them.

You use a primary battery once and then throw it away.

Secondary typically cost more than primary batteries. However, the expense is offset by their longevity. You can recharge a secondary battery, which means fewer batteries to throw away.

Lithium vs. Alkaline

Lithium and alkaline batteries share similarities but there are also some important differences.

Both kinds of batteries come in standard sizes and can power a variety of household devices. The big difference between the two chemistries is their shelf life.

Lithium batteries store more energy for longer than alkaline batteries. Lithium batteries last about twice as long as alkaline batteries. Their shelf life makes them a great choice for your emergency supply.

Battery Sizes

Batteries come in different sizes. Here are some of the most common.

AA (or double A) batteries are the most popular size. They’re used in things like carbon monoxide (CO) detectors and television remotes.

AAA (or triple A) batteries are another popular size of battery. They are a smaller version of AA. AAA batteries are often used in devices like flashlights and thermometers.

C and D batteries are larger and weightier than AA and AAA batteries. They are often used to power heavy-duty flashlights, portable radios, and camping lanterns.

Button cell or coin style batteries are often used to power small items like car key fobs, hearing aids, garage door openers, and toys.

Batteries come in other less common sizes too. Some are used as a backup power source in electrical devices like home security systems and for electronic devices like cellphones.

Take inventory of all devices you’ll need to power during an emergency. They might include flashlights, cellphones, and medical devices. Then identify the kinds and sizes of power sources (e.g., batteries) you need to power those devices. For example, you may want to purchase extra button cell or coin style batteries if you wear a hearing aid.

Battery Storage & Disposal

How you store your batteries can affect their shelf life.

  • Keep batteries in their original packaging. Keeping batteries in their packaging will protect them from humidity and contact with other batteries. A battery can short-circuit if it comes in contact with another battery.
  • Separate batteries by age and type. Store new and used and different types of batteries in separate containers or plastic bags labeled with the date you bought them. It’s best to use batteries of the same age when powering a device.
  • Store batteries in a cool, dry place. Keeping batteries at room temperature or colder will increase lifespan and performance. Humidity can cause condensation, corrosion, and leakage. If you want to store your batteries in a fridge, keep them in a vapor-proof container. Let them acclimatize to room temperature for at least 24 hours before use.
  • Keep them away from metal objects. If batteries contact with metal, they could short-circuit. Store your batteries in a container made of plastic, glass, wood, or any material that’s not metal. You can also use a specialized battery storage box.(2)

Every year in the United States, millions of single-use and rechargeable batteries are bought, used, and recycled or thrown away. Dispose of batteries based on their type and chemistry. Some batteries can cause a risk to safety and health if mismanaged at the end of their lives.(3)

Battery types are identified by marking and labeling, not by the battery’s shape or the color of the label. Certain types should NOT go in household garbage or recycling bins. Do not put button cell, coin, or lithium single-use batteries (check for the word “lithium” marked on the battery) in the trash or recycling bin. Instead, find a recycling location near you:

Visit the Environmental Protection Agency website for more information on what to do with used household batteries.

Resources

References

  1. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/types-of-batteries/
  2. https://www.panasonic-batteries.com/en/news/how-store-batteries
  3. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (https://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.