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The Public Health Practice Program Office (PHPPO) welcomes this
opportunity to brief you on our accomplishments and to discuss our
plans to respond to new challenges in the coming year.
Milestones of Existing Programs:
- The Public Health Training Network, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's (CDC) award-winning distance learning
network, has delivered nearly 1,000,000 training opportunities
since PHTN commenced operations in 1993.
- The Public Health Leadership Institute accepted its 335th
scholar and has now catalyzed the creation of state and regional
leadership institutes providing opportunities to health
professionals in 27 states.
- The National Laboratory Training Network reached over 8,000
individuals through its seven regional training centers,
providing state-of-the-art public health laboratory methods.
- The Sustainable Management Development Program graduated its
100th graduate and has developed regional or country public
health management training programs in Nigeria and Vietnam.
- The Information Network for Public Health Officials has led
the process of linking the public health community to the
Internet, providing access to online information and
strengthening information system integration.
New initiatives and activities:
- In collaboration with the National Foundation for CDC, HRSA,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Kellogg Foundation,
initiated a new Public Health Management Development Network.
- In collaboration with other CDC CIOs and Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registy (ATSDR), led the production of a
new guide, Principles of Community Engagement.
- In collaboration with the Institute of Medicine and other
public health partners, participated in the Public Health
Roundtable which produced a highly praised report, "Healthy
Communities - The Future of Public Health Revisited."
- Complete and publish an inventory of laboratory practices in
a statistically representative sample of the nation's
laboratories.
- Lead the effort to develop national objectives for the
Healthy People 2010 focus area on public health infrastructure.
We are proud of these achievements, but find ourselves faced
with many future challenges:
- Less than half of the public health workforce have had
training in public health.
- Less than half of the state and local public health
departments have adequate communications and information
systems.
- Less than half of the nation's local public health agencies
have the capacity to provide the essential public health
services.
- We have no data systems to monitor these alarming trends in
the public health infrastructure.
In summary, the nation is faced with a silent crisis in which
the nation's public health infrastructure is fragile and the
survival of many health departments is in substantial jeopardy.
To address this crisis, PHPPO will recommit, in 1998, its efforts
to strengthen the public health system through workforce
development, information system development, laboratory
improvement, and system research and development. The lauded
Institute of Medicine Report, "The Future of Public Health" was
published 10 years ago. In 1998, we will reflect back on a decade
of progress since the report was published, evaluating the impact
of our work, and recommit to working in partnership with CDC/ATSDR
colleagues and partners through the U.S. and globally to
strengthen the practice of public health in the community.
This page last reviewed: June 17, 2004
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