Dora Anne Mills presents at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting

DMills (2)Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., vice president for Clinical Affairs and director of the School of Community and Population Health, presented a session at the 141st Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association (APHA), held recently in Boston.

Mills’ presentation focused on her research concerning the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Maine and on the lessons from that era that are applicable today, such as the best way to manage an influenza epidemic like the H1N1 pandemic of 2009.

Her research on the 1918 pandemic is based on approximately 2,000 pages of newspaper articles from the time period and archives from the state library.

Mills’ experiences managing the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, as the director for public health in Maine, made clear to her how many of the lessons from 1918 are still applicable today.

In her presentation, she focused on three such lessons, including: the roles of policy; the balance of authority between federal, state, and local governments; and on the different vulnerabilities seen in rural and urban areas.

The APHA's Annual Meeting is the largest public health conference in the country, with over 13,000 attendees.