The emPOWER program provides federal data, mapping, and artificial intelligence tools, as well as training and resources, to help communities nationwide protect the health of at-risk Medicare beneficiaries who live independently and rely on electric-powered medical devices or receive certain medical services, such as outpatient dialysis, home-based oxygen service, hospice care or other types of home care medical support.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy has increased because of misinformation and disinformation spreading across social and traditional media platforms, targeting vulnerable and underserved communities, and further stalling vaccine uptake. ASTHO hosted representatives from faith- and community-based organizations, universities and colleges, healthcare systems, and other stakeholder groups to discuss the drivers of misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how public health can move forward to address vaccine hesitancy.
Board-certified forensic pathologists play a critical role in public health by investigating death so as to better serve the living. Despite forensic pathology’s contribution to public health surveillance, prevention, and response, the discipline remains largely under-resourced. This brief spotlights a local effort to address financial disincentives for medical graduates entering the field and highlights federal funding opportunities and resources for state partners looking to minimize forensic pathology workforce shortages.
Developing and implementing contact tracing programs in K-12 schools presents a crucial opportunity for both health department and school leaders to keep students healthy, and schools open. This brief shares considerations for health departments working with schools to develop and implement contact tracing programs.
In the United States, suicide and overdose are among the top 10 leading causes of death. At the intersection of suicide and overdose are shared factors that can be assessed to support a comprehensive approach to prevention. The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional stress on communities and individuals, straining resources and exacerbating the suicide and overdose epidemics. This infographic is a tool that can assist states and territories in fostering cross-sector partnerships by demonstrating the intersection of suicide and overdose and how a multi-sector approach can lead to comprehensive prevention. This infographic also reminds us that we can build healthy and supportive communities together, in a strategic and unified way.
The digital divide in health care has created a growing division between communities who have access to digital health technologies and broadband versus those who experience limited access to these resources. Marginalized communities such as communities of color and rural populations are hardest hit by these access challenges. This brief shares information on how federal agencies and states are expanding digital access through funding investments, unique partnerships, and other innovative interventions to improve digital equity and access to care.
ASTHO placed 14 disability and preparedness specialists in health agencies to support inclusivity of people living with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In this brief, three of these specialists share their experiences with ensuring COVID-19 vaccination sites are accessible to people living with disabilities. They share their perspectives and recommendations for expanding vaccine site accessibility.
While the COVID-19 response has strained tobacco prevention and control efforts, the pandemic has afforded health officials unique opportunities to retool their tobacco prevention response. This brief spotlights new findings on tobacco use and COVID-19, opportunities for tobacco prevention during the pandemic, guidance for communicating risk, and recommendations for engaging state health officials.
This brief highlights how both states are using the Health in All Policies framework to address systemic racism and social inequity between populations of different racial and ethnic groups.
The unintended consequences of substance use disorder policies can be significant for women and families impacted by substance use disorders (SUD).
States and territories can reduce adverse childhood experiences through evidence-based primary prevention strategies designed to reduce risk factors.
To ensure that establishments were abiding by food safety rules during the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect the health of professionals who inspect these facilities, multiple state health agencies implemented virtual inspection protocols.
This brief discusses what peer support is, how it is financed, and how incorporating peer support services into federally qualified health centers can be an especially successful strategy for delivering care to safety-net populations.
This infographic outlines recommendations for how PQCs can promote breastfeeding through quality improvement strategies, and includes examples of three state PQCs that have improved policies, procedures, and practices to better support breastfeeding in hospitals.
This brief outlines key considerations for state health departments to address the increase in overdose-related deaths during the postpartum period.
This brief explores how state and territorial health agencies can engage people who provide social support for individuals and families with hypertension.
About Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics Understanding Public Health Data Modernization & Informatics Understand public health data modernization work and its importance, plus ASTHO’s efforts to support agencies’ data modernization initiatives. Public health data and surveillance systems are essential to the nation’s public health infrastructure — in day-to-day operations as well as crucial moments that require detecting and responding to emerging health threats. ASTHO is dedicated to supporting its members and health agency staff in advancing crucial data modernization efforts, with comprehensive tools and customized guidance. What Is Data Modernization? Data modernization is an effort to improve public health data, technology, workforce capacity, and related processes and policies, with the end goal of having more timely and actionable insights. In public health, data modernization is a cross-cutting endeavor that supports all public health programs (e.g., environmental health, infectious disease, maternal and child health, etc.) — as safe and secure data collection, management, and sharing are critical to each area’s efforts. It is fundamental infrastructure work that supports an entire health department and connects to a much larger data ecosystem, enabling critical efforts across jurisdictions and sectors. Tabatha Offutt-Powell - Page - What Is DMI Why Is Data Modernization Important in Public Health? Data modernization is important in public health because it mobilizes faster and more complete, accurate data — getting it in the hands of the right people at the right time, from infectious disease specialists responding to an outbreak to chronic disease leaders designing data-driven interventions that promote healthier communities. These people, experts and decision-makers, can then take informed actions to protect the public’s health. When public health data systems are at their best, they can support both public health and health care. Instead of relying on fragmented views of a person or a population’s health (i.e., through different programmatic lenses or health care setting experiences), those on the receiving end of this crucial data can look at individuals and populations as a whole. The reality is that people experience all aspects of health and interface with health systems in many different ways — and when public health or health care professionals are able to connect relevant data from various sources, they can gain a more complete and accurate understanding of individual and population health, ultimately enabling better interventions. Elizabeth Ruebush - Page - What is DMI What Are the Key Components of Data Modernization That Enable Modern Data Platforms? The key components that make modern public health data systems possible include technology, people, policy (legal and organizational), and sustainability. Technology An important element is, of course, ensuring and leveraging robust, up-to-date technology. Leveraging modern technology allows agencies to move from manual to automated processes and minimizes the burden on public health and data partners. People While the technology is important, the people who manage and use these systems are just as crucial. More specifically, those with the training/skills needed to support data systems and engage with the technologies for faster, more actionable data. Policy and Process The policies and processes that guide data collection, management, sharing, and use are additional components of importance in data modernization, including: Legal policies that impact public health data reporting, surveillance, and sharing. Organizational policies and governance structures that relate to the internal standards, processes, and procedures for handling public health data. Sustainability Sustainability is also critical and involves securing ongoing resources — financial and otherwise — to ensure a health department can maintain a modern data infrastructure, rather than relying on isolated, one-time upgrades. How Does ASTHO Support Public Health Data Modernization? ASTHO has a dedicated Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics team that is committed to supporting state and territorial health agency leadership in their modernization efforts, enhancing data exchange capabilities, and supporting a sustainable and resilient public health data infrastructure. The team supports public health agencies on their data modernization journeys by: Bringing health agencies and private partners together through the Public Health Data Consortium — with an objective of enhancing the quality of and access to public health data used to inform population health decisions and understand long-term outcomes. Accelerating modern data exchange through cutting-edge health IT standards and offering direct technical implementation services through the Implementation Center Program. Managing the Informatics and Data Modernization Network, which facilitates peer-to-peer learning and information sharing about informatics and data modernization activities/opportunities among members. Bringing key thought leaders together through the Joint Public Health Informatics Task Force to have meaningful conversations about and align initiatives around data modernization. Identifying sustainable funding structures that help health departments accomplish a meaningful data exchange project or infrastructure advancement. Providing technical assistance and developing resources (e.g., tactical guides, issue briefs, robust toolkits) around data modernization and informatics. Conducting legislative tracking and policy assessments to explore legal and policy considerations influencing public health data and technology. Working to modernize public health infrastructure in your health agency? ASTHO’s Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics team would love to help. To get started, browse the team’s data modernization resources, and reach out for personalized support. Contact DMI Team article
APPLETREE COVID-19 Supplemental Awards In early 2021, ASTHO, with support from CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), announced awards to five state health agencies to support their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. State health agencies in Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Vermont, and Virginia were selected for this opportunity because of their recent application to ATSDR’s Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposure (APPLETREE) cooperative agreement program. Vermont requested that ASTHO work directly with their partner organization, Informed Green Solutions (IGS), for this project. The factsheets on this page outline activities supported under these awards. Arkansas Department of Health (PDF) Informed Green Solutions (PDF) (Partner to Vermont Department of Health) Kentucky Department for Public Health (PDF) Indiana Department of Health (PDF) Virginia Department of Health (PDF) website no
Climate and Health association of state and territorial health officials, astho, climate and health, climate change, effects of climate change, public health departments, state and territorial health agencies, adverse health effects, health effects of climate change, environmental health, extreme weather and climate, extreme weather and climate readiness, state and territorial health departments, climate readiness, climate adaptation, extreme weather events, vector-borne disease The ongoing effects of impact every part of our lives, including our individual and community-level health. From rising temperatures, increased occurrence and magnitude of natural disasters, expanded vector-borne disease patterns, to increased transmission of waterborne diseases — the changing natural environment in which we live will affect our health. These issues have led to significant negative health effects on both individuals and populations, particularly high-risk communities. As such, public health departments must address how best to respond to this ongoing crisis. State and territorial health agencies can use surveillance tools, create vulnerability assessments, and develop adaptation plans to prepare and respond to the adverse health effects of climate and extreme weather events. website
This self-paced online training module was developed to address the short- and long-term health effects of climate change on vector-borne disease (VBD) transmission and infection patterns. The goal of this training is to provide geographic information system (GIS) tools and resources to Insular Area Health Agencies to assist in their surveillance of, and response to, vector-borne diseases.