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Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence
C. William Keck: Academic Health Departments

Date: 12/7/2010 3:36 PM

Related Categories: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Topic: Council on Linkages, Workforce Development

Tag: Academic Health Department, Academic Health Department Learning Community, Council on Linkages, Infrastructure, Partnerships, Research, Training, Workforce Development, Accreditation

There is a big distinction between people just working together with their own agenda and working together towards a common purpose…When a community of learners transforms into a learning community, the outcome is far greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Lori Nishiura, “On Learning”
 
Many local and state health departments have had connections to academic institutions over the years.  Generally these connections have started with requests to provide practical experiences for health professions students but in many cases have expanded to include collaborative service and research activities and the sharing of resources for teaching and problem-solving.  In some settings these relationships have been formalized and involved health departments that have been labeled “Academic Health Departments (AHDs).”
 
The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (COL) has been following these developments and believes recent trends and activities enhance the potential for AHDs to contribute meaningfully to the quest to improve the quality of community-based training, service and research in the following ways: the support of the Association of American Medical Colleges to improve the teaching of public health in medical schools, the support of the Association of Schools of Public Health for the development of more AHDs connected to public health schools, the development of a formalized Public Health Systems and Services Research program with the creation of Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks,  the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that emphasizes the importance of prevention and community-based effectiveness research, and the growing number of health departments that characterize themselves as AHDs.
 
The COL, therefore, with financial support from the Human Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is developing a national “AHD Learning Community” to engage the practice and academic communities in a process to foster an exchange of ideas about the AHD concept.  The intent is to understand and characterize such health departments and the environments in which they develop, identify mechanisms and tools that may be helpful for those contemplating the development of such departments, and address the mechanisms best suited for communication among those interested and/or involved. 
 
Please share with us your thoughts and opinions on this and other hot public health topics by posting and subscribing to comments throughout PHF’s new website. 
 
The PHF Pulse Blog welcomes conversations and commentary from contributors. Posts may not necessarily reflect the views of Public Health Foundation.
 

Comments

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Kathleen Amos

12/22/2010

Two new AHD resources have been added to our Resources & Tools section! We would love to hear feedback on our draft overview of AHD concepts and bibliography of AHD-related articles.

C. William Keck

12/22/2010

The Council on Linkages staff and I have been very encouraged by the numbers of individuals from both the practice and academic communities that have, to date, expressed interest in and enthusiasm for the idea of creating an Academic Health Department Learning Community. As Joya notes, the time may very well have come for us formalize and organize the idea. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to interact with those who wish to participate in this endeavor as we learn about successful practices and caveats, and determine what can be done to help those who have developed or would like to develop stronger ties between practice and academia. I'd like to second Kathleen's call for feedback on our concept paper and initial reference list while encouraging all to contribute general thoughts or specific experiences that may be helpful as we move forward.

Daniel Albrant

12/21/2010

An AHC is an interesting model and one that holds promise. However, just linking to an academic insititution, one that might not have a strong sense of community, may result in a lack of focus on what is important to those served locally by a health department. With my 501c3 (Possibilities Journey, Inc) I'm endeavoring to re-engage faith communities in their historical role as enablers and empowerers of healthy behaviors. Along with local workforce engagement, this remains a key aspect (in my opinion) for creating a healthier population. Training health professions students in practical applications of knowledge and practice-based research are key aspects of transforming community health and I look forward to roling in faith community members who live and work within health department areas of influence.

Anonymous

12/20/2010

It takes a strong community of academic health departments to raise the overall level of public health quality

Joya Neff

12/20/2010

Diane and Bill, I am reminded of Octavio Paz's statement, "Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor change, but in the dialectic between the two.” Oh how true! We've been on the fringe of this effort for years, but never quite got to the level of being a community. Maybe now , with a broader and more willing generation of ph professionals, it is the time to make it happen. From an old public health nurse with 35 years of progressively "higher" (that's actually funny) level positions in governmental public health and as an adjunct faculty in an undergraduate college of nursing, I can assest to the need for a desire to make a change as the power to bring together a willing cadre of ph professionals to mount this fantastic effort.

Diane Downing

12/18/2010

The partnership between academic institutions and various professional schools (public health, medicine, pharmacy, nursing, health education, health administration, technology) was invaluable for expanding the ability of a health dept I have just retired from to deliver community based services and for expanding community-based population focused experiences for students. So many of these partnerships depend on personalities at either the agency or academic institution. It does take extra effort on the part of both. Having a formal written agreement would certainly strengthen the chance that the partnership will continue but not guarantee it. I love the idea of an AHD Learning Community and look forward to participating. Although retired from a health department I have now entered the world of academia and will continue working on establishing partnerships with health departments.

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