ASU College of Health Solutions announces Health Talks speaker series for fall 2022

The Health Talks webinar series from the College of Health Solutions resumes Aug. 25, with the timely topic “Heat and Health: How to Help Vulnerable Populations.”

Health Talks began in spring 2020 as a series of conversations featuring health solutions faculty and other experts discussing topical, relevant health issues that impact our community. Each webinar in the series is offered at no charge and is approved for one continuing education credit for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers and other health care professionals.

Past talks have included such timely subjects as vaccine mandates, understanding statistics and evidence-based medicine, the opioid crisis and telehealth.

Topics for other talks in this year’s series include monkeypox, veterans health, and speech and hearing health.

The Aug. 25 conversation on heat and health will feature Dr. Pope Moseley, a physician and College of Health Solutions research professor, and David Hondula, director of the city of Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation who is also an associate professor at the ASU School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

Dr. Brad Doebbeling, College of Health Solutions professor of health care delivery and biomedical informatics, who is also a physician, will moderate the discussion.

While triple-digit temperatures are common in Arizona in the summer, people in regions outside of the Southwest are increasingly having to deal with temperature extremes brought on by climate change. Officials in those impacted areas look to Arizona for its experience in dealing with the effects of heat on vulnerable populations.

Moseley, who as a physician has worked in intensive care units, said heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke or heat exhaustion are a small part of the negative impacts of high temperatures.

“Heat causes exacerbation of a variety of diseases, from heart failure to emphysema to drug overdose fatalities,” Moseley said. “In fact, only about 10% of the morbidity and mortality caused by heat are characterized as heat-related illness.”

Moseley added that the impacts of high temperatures affect disadvantaged communities even more due to a lack of access to air conditioning and other extenuating circumstances.

“Since we know that underserved populations also have a disproportionate share of the chronic conditions made worse by heat, they are in effect, doubly impacted by increasing temperatures,” he said.

Fall 2022 Health Talks schedule

• Thursday, Aug. 25: "Heat and Health: How to Help Vulnerable Populations."
  
• Thursday, Sept. 15: "Understanding Monkeypox: Status and Prevention."
• Thursday, Oct. 27: "Veterans Health: Supporting the Transition to Civilian Life."
  
• Thursday, Dec. 8: "Speech and Hearing Health: Optimizing Quality of Life."
  

All Health Talks are free, open to the public and held online via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Arizona time. Registration is required. 

For more information or to register, visit chs.asu.edu/health-talks.