Oral

Building on their experience in producing the Wisconsin County Health Rankings annually since 2003, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI) will prepare County Health Rankings for each state in the nation. These Rankings will be released in February 2010. The County Health Rankings are part of the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project which is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to: a) Increase awareness of the many factors—clinical care access and quality, health-promoting behaviors, social and economic factors, and the physical environment—that contribute to the health of communities b) Foster engagement among public and private decision makers to improve community health and c) Develop incentives to encourage coordination across sectors for community health improvement. During this session, the UWPHI team will describe the data and methods being employed in developing the new County Health Rankings, explain the plans for communication and community engagement surrounding the release of the Rankings, and provide insights from the experiences of prior Rankings efforts.

Session Objectives: 1. Describe the new County Health Rankings to be released in early 2010 2. Explain the rationale underlying the release of the County Health Rankings 3. List steps that can be taken in preparation for the release of the Rankings

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)