scholarly journals Pharmacist Involvement in Addressing Public Health Priorities and Community Needs: The Allegheny County Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Padden Elliott ◽  
Stephanie N. Christian ◽  
Katie Doong ◽  
Hannah E. Hardy ◽  
Dara D. Mendez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Allegheny County ◽  
Community Needs

State Health Department Accreditation Technical Assistance: A Focused Strategic Thinking Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 67S-72S ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Ginter ◽  
Lauren Wallace ◽  
Andrew C. Rucks
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Strategic Plan ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
Public Health Training

Public health departments provide many services critical to maintaining healthy populations, including communicable disease control, immunizations, primary care, and emergency preparedness. The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) has established an accreditation process for public health departments that measures departmental performance against nationally recognized, evidence-based standards. The goal is to recognize departmental strengths and weaknesses, strengthen partnerships, and promote the prioritization of organizational goals to improve community health. Achieving accreditation from the PHAB requires health departments to develop Community Health Assessment (CHA), Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), and Strategic Plan processes. The intent of the CHA is to determine contributing factors for poor health outcomes and assess available resources. Building on the CHA, the CHIP establishes health priorities and improvement strategies, including measurable health outcomes and recommended policy changes. Finally, Strategic Plan defines the health department’s strategic priorities, goals, and implementation plans. A number of methodologies are available to develop these plans, but many prove to be complicated and confusing, leading to suboptimal performance. The Alabama-Mississippi Public Health Training Center assisted the Alabama Department of Public Health with the creation of their plans by developing the Focused Strategic Thinking Approach, which supplied simple and effective processes to develop useful and successful plans. These processes provide useful guides for other public health departments developing their prerequisites as they pursue PHAB accreditation.

scholarly journals Using Community-Engaged Research to Explore Social Determinants of Health in a Low-Resource Community in the Dominican Republic: A Community Health Assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-137
Author(s):  
Arelis Moore de Peralta ◽  
Lauren Davis ◽  
Katherine Brown ◽  
Michelle Fuentes ◽  
N. Suzanne Falconer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Community Health Assessment ◽  
Low Resource ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Unwanted Pregnancies

Introduction: Previously published community health assessments (CHA) have explored social determinants of health in low-resource, Haitian-majority Dominican communities. The present CHA was conducted in Las Malvinas II, a Dominican-majority low-resource community, and represented a first step for developing a building a healthier community process. Method: A binational community–academic partnership adapted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s CHANGE (Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation) guide to conduct a CHA through community-engaged, mixed-methods research. Data were collected on five community selected public health priorities (i.e., education, sanitation, unwanted pregnancies, chronic disease management, and vaccine-preventable diseases) and community assets through focus groups, interviews with key informants, and a household survey using GIS (geographical information systems) technology. Results: Of all five priorities, unwanted pregnancies and sanitation received the lowest average CHANGE tool ratings for both policies and Systems and Environment. However, data gathered on the five public health priorities reflect the perceived needs and assets of Las Malvinas II, and are equally important in improving the community’s health and well-being status. Community members identified as important goals the construction of a primary health clinic, as well as a bigger school, that includes pre-school and high school levels. Conclusion: A coalition emerged from the CHA to address the identified issues. The coalition used CHA findings to develop a community health improvement plan. The establishment of a primary health care center and a bigger school were identified as primary goals.

17. Boundaries or overlap: An examination of the community-oriented clinical practice of community medicine specialists and family/general practitioners

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
M. L. Russell ◽  
L. McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Community Medicine ◽  
Work Setting ◽  
Public Health Medicine ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Main Work

We compared the work settings and “community-oriented clinical practice” of Community Medicine (CM) specialists and family physicians/general practitioners (FP). We conducted secondary data analysis of the 2004 National Physician Survey (NPS) to examine main work setting and clinical activity reported by 154 CM (40% of eligible CM in Canada) and 11,041 FP (36% of eligible FP in Canada). Text data from the specialist questionnaire related to “most common conditions that you treat” were extracted from the Master database for CM specialists, and subjected to thematic analysis and coded. CM specialists were more likely than FP to engage in “community medicine/public health” (59.7% vs 15.3%); while the opposite was found for primary care (13% vs. 78.2%). CM specialists were less likely to indicate a main work setting of private office/clinic/community health centre/community hospital than were FP (13.6% vs. 75.6%). Forty-five percent of CM provided a response to “most common conditions treated” with the remainder either leaving the item blank or indicating that they did not treat individual patients. The most frequently named conditions in rank order were: psychiatric disorders; public health program/activity; respiratory problems; hypertension; and metabolic disorders (diabetes). There is some overlap in the professional activities and work settings of CM specialists and FP. The “most commonly treated conditions” suggest that some CM specialists may be practicing primary care as part of the Royal College career path of “community-oriented clinical practice.” However the “most commonly treated conditions” do not specifically indicate an orientation of that practice towards “an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention” as also specified by the Royal College for that CM career path. This raises questions about the appropriateness of the current training requirements and career paths as delineated for CM specialists by the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. Bhopal R. Public health medicine and primary health care: convergent, divergent, or parallel paths? J Epidemiol Community Health 1995; 49:113-6. Pettersen BJ, Johnsen R. More physicians in public health: less public health work? Scan J Public Health 2005; 33:91-8. Stanwell-Smith R. Public health medicine in transition. J Royal Society of Medicine 2001; 94(7):319-21.

Identifying Public Health Problems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Burris ◽  
Micah L. Berman ◽  
Matthew Penn, and ◽  
Tara Ramanathan Holiday
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life Years ◽  
Quality Adjusted Life Years ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
Quality Adjusted Life

Chapter 5 discusses the use of epidemiology to identify the source of public health problems and inform policymaking. It uses a case study to illustrate how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners detect diseases, identify their sources, determine the extent of an outbreak, and prevent new infections. The chapter also defines key measures in epidemiology that can indicate public health priorities, including morbidity and mortality, years of potential life lost, and measures of lifetime impacts, including disability-adjusted life years and quality-adjusted life years. Finally, the chapter reviews epidemiological study designs, differentiating between experimental and observational studies, to show how to interpret data and identify limitations.

scholarly journals An innovative approach to improve the detection and treatment of risk factors in poor urban settings: a feasibility study in Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Poggio Rosana ◽  
Goodarz Danaei ◽  
Laura Gutierrez ◽  
Ana Cavallo ◽  
María Victoria Lopez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Feasibility Study ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Cvd Risk Factors ◽  
Cvd Risk

Abstract Background The effective management of cardiovascular (CVD) prevention among the population with exclusive public health coverage in Argentina is low since less than 30% of the individuals with predicted 10-year CVD risk ≥10% attend a clinical visit for CVD risk factors control in the primary care clinics (PCCs). Methods We conducted a non-controlled feasibility study using a mixed methods approach to evaluate acceptability, adoption and fidelity of a multi-component intervention implemented in the public healthcare system. The eligibility criteria were having exclusive public health coverage, age ≥ 40 years, residence in the PCC’s catchment area and 10-year CVD risk ≥10%. The multi-component intervention addressed (1) system barriers through task shifting among the PCC’s staff, protected medical appointments slots and a new CVD form and (2) Provider barriers through training for primary care physicians and CHW and individual barriers through a home-based intervention delivered by community health workers (CHWs). Results A total of 185 participants were included in the study. Of the total number of eligible participants, 82.2% attended at least one clinical visit for risk factor control. Physicians intensified drug treatment in 77% of participants with BP ≥140/90 mmHg and 79.5% of participants with diabetes, increased the proportion of participants treated according to GCP from 21 to 32.6% in hypertensive participants, 7.4 to 33.3% in high CVD risk and 1.4 to 8.7% in very high CVD risk groups. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure were lower at the end of follow up (156.9 to 145.4 mmHg and 92.9 to 88.9 mmHg, respectively) and control of hypertension (BP < 140/90 mmHg) increased from 20.3 to 35.5%. Conclusion The proposed CHWs-led intervention was feasible and well accepted to improve the detection and treatment of risk factors in the poor population with exclusive public health coverage and with moderate or high CVD risk at the primary care setting in Argentina. Task sharing activities with CHWs did not only stimulate teamwork among PCC staff, but it also improved quality of care. This study showed that community health workers could have a more active role in the detection and clinical management of CVD risk factors in low-income communities.

scholarly journals Health inequities and technological solutions during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in high-income countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 175797592098418
Author(s):  
Muriel Mac-Seing ◽  
Robson Rocha de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
High Income ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
And Control ◽  
Political Decisions

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions to public health, healthcare, as well as political and economic systems across national borders, thus requiring an urgent need to adapt. Worldwide, governments have made a range of political decisions to enforce preventive and control measures. As junior researchers analysing the pandemic through a health equity lens, we wish to share our reflections on this evolving crisis, specifically: (a) the tenuous intersections between the responses to the pandemic and public health priorities; (b) the exacerbation of health inequities experienced by vulnerable populations following decisions made at national and global levels; and (c) the impacts of the technological solutions put forward to address the crisis. Examples drawn from high-income countries are provided to support our three points.

scholarly journals The Michigan BioTrust for Health: Using Dried Bloodspots for Research to Benefit the Community While Respecting the Individual

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (S1) ◽  
pp. 98-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Chrysler ◽  
Harry McGee ◽  
Janice Bach ◽  
Ed Goldman ◽  
Peter D. Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Filter Paper ◽  
Health Program ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Health Laboratory ◽  
Public Health Program ◽  
Personal Use ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Blood Spot

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) stores almost 4 million dried blood spot specimens (DBS) in the Michigan Neonatal Biobank. DBS are collected from newborns under a mandatory public health program to screen for serious conditions. At 24 to 36 hours of age, a few drops of blood are taken from the baby’s heel and placed on a filter paper card. The card is sent to the state public health laboratory for testing. After testing, MDCH retains the spots indefinitely for the personal use of the patient and also, pursuant to a 2000 law, for possible research.

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