Predictive analytics in HIV surveillance require new approaches to data ethics, rights, and regulation in public health

Advancing the Science of Delivery

Health Systems Need to Transform Data Collection to Advance Health Equity.

Has traditional medicine had its day? The need to redefine academic medicine

A Brief History of Public Health Informatics-Lessons for Leaders and a Look Into the Future.

This chapter examines the structure of law underlying U.S. public health practice by focusing on the statutory basis of the federal and state/local infrastructure of the U.S. public health system, including the creation of federal agencies having public health or related responsibilities and powers under the U.S. Constitution and, similarly, state and local agencies with public health roles, responsibilities, and powers. It describes the structure of law and the statutory basis of public health systems and practice in two main sections. The first of these sections examines the statutory basis of public health practice at the federal level. The second section explores this for state-level public health systems and practice. These sections also implicate certain key foundational legal concepts, including federalism and preemption, that are highly relevant to understanding the interplay between legislative enactments and public health practice at all levels.

Is Public Health Ethical?

Public Health Strengths During the COVID-19 Response.

The Public Health System in England

Public health laws have significant impact to improve public's health and essential to achieving the sustainable development goals. Human Rights legislation and advancing the Right to Health approaches are seen as key to tackling social determinants of health and widening health inequalities. Health law is not just the work of lawyers, legislators and enforcers. There is growing expectations and need for public health practitioners and leaders to understand local and international legal systems and obligations and their critical role in improving and protecting the public's health, and to work in strategic partnership to improve population health through law and policy. Yet such issues are often neglected in educational and training programmes in public health and their practical implications poorly understood and appreciated by practitioners. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight the nature and key role of law in improving public's health in practice, and to share the work by NHS Scotland and Wales in considering human rights and right to health approaches in their day to day to day activities and projects in public health. It will highlight practical issues and ideas in advancing the political goal of public health law reform and getting the right to health approaches into day to day practice and activities. This will include options to include educational and training activities for the public health workforce, including its practical inclusion in public health curriculum. It will share case study of the innovative and powerful “Wellbeing of Future Generations Act” in Wales and its implications for public's health and practice. The panel for the workshop will be senior expert experienced public health legal scholars, practitioners and policy makers who will briefly share their expert perspectives on the issue and the projects. One of the elements of the roundtable workshop will be to reflect and consult with the participants around their experience and insights in considering public law and right to health approaches in their practice and the needs, opportunities and barriers to engage more systematically in strategic partnerships and activities around better understanding and use of public health law to protect and improve public's health and the training and educational needs to advance the agenda. Key messages Strengthening public health laws and advancing right to health approaches are vital to improving public’s health and tackling health inequalities. There is need to build capacity and competency of public health leaders and practitioners around public health law and strategic partnerships to improve population health.

Unabashedly, I confess to being a recovering former state and local health official. During my recent transition into academia, public health practice has continued to be my reference point for making meaningful contributions to the broader public health field. This issue of the Journal on the “business” of public health has only served to reinforce the vigor of my long-held views. Moreover, this occasion presents an opportunity to share some developing thoughts on how public health practice might better be incorporated into this venerable publication, while still preserving its appeal to a wider public health audience. Supreme Court Justice Potter Steward may have said it best: “I know it when I see it” (Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 US 184 [1964]). Although he was referring to pornography rather than public health practice, the same test may still apply. Altogether too often, when we describe public health practice, our focus tends to be limited to that of the governmental sector. To be sure, it remains a critical unit of analysis as public health moves forward to embrace a national voluntary health department accreditation model. However, as we have recently learned through experience with the National Public Health Performance Standards Program (a product of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 6 public health practice partner organizations; available at: http://www.cdc.gov/od/ocphp/nphpsp), much of what we generally recognize as public health practice is accomplished in tandem, with the public health sector interacting as partners with health care, education, transportation, and others to create the larger public health system. The shared development of strategies and interventions designed to promote and protect the health of communities (Turnock BJ. Essentials of Public Health. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett; 2007) is public health practice writ large. If the ultimate goal of public health practice is advancement of community health, then the talisman is improvement of health status indicators. Yet, this linkage between public health interventions and downstream health outcomes has often proven elusive. Given the complex environment in which public health is only one of many actors, this paucity of demonstrable impact is understandable; however, the dilemma is compounded by the relatively limited use in public health of an evidence-based approach. Prestigious medical journals, like New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association, make a concerted effort to translate research findings into everyday practice relevant for their readers. Although they are not uniformly successful, I applaud the worthy attempt. They do literature reviews of contemporary science, summarize it, and outline lessons for practical application. Alternatively, at times, authors hone in on a specific (more narrow) clinical problem, and update the state of the art. Both models may have public health parallels. The equivalent approach in public health might involve soliciting the work of leading public health system researchers as well as other scientists, and encouraging translation of their findings to the public health practitioner at all levels. There are also extremely important transforming events taking place in the larger public health field. Stated more succinctly, the remodeled Government, Politics, and Law Department of the Journal will emphasize the metamorphosis that public health practice is undergoing—focusing on what it can become.

Strategies to Operationalize Health Equity in Island Area Health Departments.

ObjectivesThe Nigerian health sector battles with control of infectious diseases and emerging non-communicable diseases. Number of healthcare personnel involved in public health programs need to be boosted to contain the health challenges of the country. Therefore, it is important to assess whether community pharmacists in Nigeria could be engaged in the promotion and delivery of various public health interventions. This study aimed to assess level of knowledge, attitude and practice of public health by community pharmacists.MethodsThe cross sectional survey was carried out in Enugu metropolis. Questionnaire items were developed from expert literature. Percentage satisfactory knowledge and practice were obtained by determining the percentage of community pharmacists that were able to list more than 2 activities or that stated the correct answer. Attitude score represents the average score on the 5 point Likert scale for each item. Chi square and Fisher’s exact test were used to test for statistically significant difference in knowledge, attitude and practice of public health between different groups of community pharmacists.ResultsForty pharmacists participated in the survey. About one third of the participants had satisfactory knowledge of public health. With the exception of one item in attitude assessment, average item score ranged from ‘agreed’ to ‘strongly agreed’. Study participants scored below satisfactory on practice of public health. Knowledge, attitude and practice of public health were not influenced by years of practice, qualification and prior public health experience. Reported barriers to the practice of public health include inadequate funds, lack of time, lack of space, cooperation of clients, inadequate staff, government regulation, insufficient knowledge, and remuneration.ConclusionsLevel of knowledge and practice of public health by community pharmacists were not satisfactory although they had a positive attitude towards practice of public health. The findings highlight the importance of educational interventions targeted towards practicing community pharmacists to improve their knowledge level on public health issues. Providing incentives for public health services rendered could increase community pharmacists’ engagement in public health activities.

Public Health Finance

Public health in practice: the three domains of public health

COVID-19 Highlights Critical Need for Public Health Data Modernization to Remain a Priority.