2022: New Beginnings, New Changes
The Community Access National Network (CANN) ushers in a new beginning with the 2022 New Year, evidenced not only by the changing of the guard with our new President & CEO, but also with some important programmatic changes with our organization. We felt it important to share these changes with you.
Our weekly blog, previously branded as the HEAL Blog (Hepatitis Education, Advocacy & Leadership), is being repurposed to serve our broader mission “to define, promote, and improve access to healthcare services and supports for people living with HIV/AIDS and/or viral hepatitis through advocacy, education, and networking.” As such it is now the CANN Blog, and its areas of interest will focus on HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, substance use disorder, harm reduction, patient assistance programs (PAPs), Medicare, Medicaid, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on public health. In keeping with the desire to monitor broader public health-related issues and appropriately engage stakeholders, our CANN Blog will be disseminated to a larger audience. Therefore, some of you may notice one more email in your inbox each Monday morning since we’re employing our general listserv to share the blog posts. It is our hope that you’ll deem the added email of value and thus maintain yourself on our listserv.
Additionally, our acclaimed HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch will also be shared with our general listserv. But don’t worry, it only means one additional email each quarter! The HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch offers a patient-centric informational portal serving three primary groups - patients, healthcare providers, and AIDS Service Organizations. The quarterly Watches are published in January, April, July, and October.
In 2022, our Groups will also be more active. Since 1996, our National ADAP Working Group (NAWG) has served as the cornerstone of CANN’s advocacy work on public policy. Whereas NAWG will continue to engage our HIV/AIDS stakeholders with monthly news updates, we will also convene periodic stakeholder meetings to discuss important issues facing the HIV community. Likewise, our Hepatitis Education, Advocacy & Leadership (HEAL) Group has served as an interactive national platform for the last decade on relevant issues facing people living with viral hepatitis. Periodic stakeholder meetings to discuss important issues facing the Hepatitis community will now complement the HEAL monthly newsletter. If you would like to join either the NAWG or HEAL listserv, then please do so using this link.
CANN will also launch its 340B Action Center this year. It is designed to provide patients with content-drive educational resources about the 340B Drug Discount Program and why the program matters to you. The importance of the 340B Program cannot be under-stated, and CANN remains committed to taking a balanced “money follows the patient” approach on the issues facing the program and advocating for needed reforms.
Finally, like most advocacy organizations, CANN is constantly evaluating whether it is safe (or not) to host in-person stakeholder meetings. Covid-19 has changed the advocacy landscape. Over the last two years our two signature meetings (Community Roundtable and Annual National Monitoring Report on HIV/HCV Co-Infection) have been hosted virtually, rather than in-person. CANN is taking a “wait and see” approach on how best to proceed in 2022 with these events. We will keep you apprised of our decision.
As we close the door on 2021 and open it for 2022, CANN looks forward to working with all of its community partners, industry partners, and you!
