Medical Community Initiative

Building Public Acceptance Among Medical and Health Professionals

Although water reuse is a proven, science-based process that has been used safely in communities around the world for decades, the public is often skeptical when the concept is first introduced into a community. Because of the nexus between water and health, the public naturally turns to the medical community for assurances about water quality. The medical community, in turn, relies on the scientific community and public health officials for their expertise in determining standards for water quality.

To build acceptance among medical and health professionals, WateReuse has launched the Medical Community Initiative. The effort has three goals:

• Establish an online hub of informational resources that members can access to help educate medical and health professionals in their community.
• Build partnerships with research universities, associations for medical and health professionals, and other advocacy organizations to create channels for communications to medical and health professions.
• Participate in conferences for medical and health professionals.

For more information about the Medical Community Initiative, please contact Carrie Capuco at (571) 445-5504.

Resources

• Dr. Sanjay Gupta Visits El Paso’s Inland Desalination Plant with CNN
  – Check out how El Paso produces 35 million gallons of water a day by reusing water

• “So Your Patient Asks About…,” San Diego Physician magazine, September 2015.
  
• Prescription for Success
  – Prescription for Success is a power point template which can be useful when describing water reuse to audiences in the medical and public health professions.
  – Topics include: Water Availability & Scarcity, The Safety of Drinking Water, Resilience & Reliability, Risk & Perception, and Potable Reuse.

• Water Reuse Project of Wichita Falls City, Texas
  – Learn the views of medical professionals, Chemistry professors, Public Works Director on potable reuse water

• Water From Water-Recycling
  – Watch case studies and public officials discuss about the increasing significance on recycling water