March Public Health Practice Committee Meeting

When: 23rd March, 2009; 12:00 pm EDT

Agenda items:
1. DiSTRIBuTE update from Don Olson
2. Ongoing discussion of joint RC/PHPC webinar
3. APHA panel planning

Discussion:
1. Don Olson gave a brief update on the DiSTRIBuTE project on today's call. On April 2nd and 3rd, ISDS and the Markle Foundation will be co-hosting a meeting for the DiSTRIBuTE working group in New York City. Current and prospective participants have been invited to come to New York City to discuss the latest details of the project.

2. Howard Burkom, Board Liaison to the Research Committee, led an ongoing discussion about the logistics of the joint Research/Public Health Practice Committee webinar to be held in May. The goal of the webinar is to bring the current challenges faced by public health practitioners to the attention of the research community at large. Members of both Committees have expressed concern that much current research in disease surveillance has little application for public health practitioners. With an increasing emphasis on health information technology and exchange, public health practitioners need relevant, understandable analytic tools to manage information and make it useful. It is hoped that the invited panelists (TBD) will be able to discuss concrete technical problems within the current (and future) constraints of practitioners. The 2 hour webinar is tentatively scheduled for late May, and the Committees hope to reach out to a wide range of professionals.

3. In addition to the May webinar, the Research and Public Health Practice Committees are also planning the details of a panel to be held at the November American Public Health Association conference in Philadelphia, where similar issues to those presented in May will be addressed. The Committees are looking to put together a panel of no more than 5 speakers to present on statistical and technological challenges in disease surveillance.

Next PHPC Meeting: Monday, April 27th at 12:00 pm EDT.