NEWS

Allied Health Professions Week to be celebrated with public speech

By LANITA WITHERS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- They clean our teeth, perform ultrasounds, take X-rays and contribute in dozens of other ways to maintaining everyone's health.

Collectively, these medical experts in more than 100 different fields are called allied health professionals. They'll be celebrated nationwide Nov. 3-9, proclaimed Allied Health Professions Week, through events including a speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Steve Wilson, dean of allied health sciences at Ohio State University, will speak to the Council for Allied Health in North Carolina during its Nov. 6 meeting, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the board room of the UNC General Administration Building, 910 Raleigh Road, Chapel Hill. The event will be free and open to the public. The council is headquartered in the UNC School of Medicine's allied health sciences department.

"Allied health practitioners constitute approximately 60 percent of all health care providers and greatly influence health care delivery by supporting, facilitating and complementing the roles of physicians and other health care specialists," said Dr. Tom Bacon, council chair and director of the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers, based in UNC's medical school.

"The new era in health-care delivery finds allied health professionals employed in public and private sectors, not only in hospitals, but in our schools, clinics, laboratories, nursing homes, mental health facilities, private medical practices, research institutions, public health services and pharmaceutical companies," he said.

Dental hygienists, dietitians, audiologists, physical therapists and physician’s assistants are among the ranks of allied health professionals. Many are members of the Virginia-based Health Professions Network, which promotes Allied Health Professions Week nationally each year.

Gov. Mike Easley proclaimed the week in North Carolina, asking citizens to "join me in celebrating the contributions of our allied health professionals in their continual efforts to sustain and improve the delivery of highest quality health care in this state."

For more information about the UNC event, contact Andrea Catenaro, council assistant, at 966-8566; about the council, visit http://www.alliedhealthcouncilNC.org; about the national week, visit http://www.healthpronet.org.

- 30 -

(Withers is a senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication from Reidsville.)

Contact: Andrea Catenaro, 966-8566, andrea_catenaro@med.unc.edu