Friday, April 18, 2025
4/18/2025
Category B: Physicians in state and local health departments - PROJECT ABSTRACT All levels of government, from the White House and federal agencies to state and local governments should continue to strengthen their health equity leadership and adopt strategies and accountability metrics to incorporate equity into preparedness”. Ready or Not 2024: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, (Trust for America’s Health 2024). Particularly when it comes to an emergency preparedness and response, it is essential that governmental public health organizations have a workforce that is equipped to not only be able to evaluate the needs of the communities they serve but translate that evidence to action. This is important across all functional areas of the public health workforce, but it is critical for those in positions of leadership. The COVID 19 public health emergency amplified existing inequities in access and delivery of care. It also made clear that public health leadership training is needed, not simply in technical competencies (e.g., epidemiology 101, crisis communication/combating mis- and dis-information, conducting community needs assessments and analysis) but in competencies designed to build community trust and facilitate community partnerships necessary to ensure that health department approaches to improving a population’s health reflects the priorities, cultural contexts and social determinants of that population. With broad expertise in clinical population health, deep investment and experience developing health equity informed education content and a robust platform for deriving and disseminating evidence-based content, the American College of Preventive Medicine is uniquely positioned to develop and disseminate this proposed equity-informed leadership coursework and certification critical to equipping physicians within government health departments with the tools to lead effectively to address public health disparities and the nuanced challenges facing the public health workforce. ACPM aims to build on the work from the past 5-year investment from CDC and leverage its experience and broad network of preventive medicine physicians, professional partnerships and multi-media outreach infrastructure to develop an equity informed certification in population health leadership to equip physicians in management and leadership roles within state and local public health departments, with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies to effectively address the public health needs of the communities they serve. Aim 1: Conduct a gap analysis to define and refine a leadership competency framework based on surveillance of existing tools and target population needs assessment. Factors to be evaluated include existing programs, gaps in theoretical and practical competencies, environmental scan of content for technical and applied skills. Aim 2. Develop a set of bundled leadership courses, focused on core competencies identified through the outcomes of [Aim 1]. Aim 2a: Develop a competency exam required for certification, based on the learning objectives outlined in the leadership courses. Aim 3: Marshal ACPM’s existing partnerships and expertise to promote the equity-informed leadership certification, broadly disseminate the certification offering to public health partners in state and local public health departments through partner organizations, preventive medicine residency programs, as well as focused marketing and communications efforts.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).