Oral

While public health practice in the U.S. is, in many ways, very different from public health practice in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries, the U.S. and LAC countries share a common language and related tools for assessing and strengthening public health systems. In the U.S., the 10 Essential Public Health Services (10 EPHS) describe the public health activities that should be undertaken in all communities (1). To measure the capacity of public health systems to deliver the 10 EPHS, local and state public health systems, and local boards of health implement the National Public Health Performance Standards Program (NPHPSP) instruments. Similarly, LAC countries have identified eleven Essential Public Health Functions (EPHF) and developed a related tool to measure public health system capacity in these regions. From New Jersey to Peru, communities throughout the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean use the NPHPSP, or their international equivalents, to measure their public health system performance and begin addressing priority areas for system strengthening. During this session, presenters will highlight some of the general similarities and distinctions between the public health landscape in the U.S. and LAC countries, describe how the NPHPSP instruments and related EPHF instrument have been implemented, and share lessons learned from public health system assessment and strengthening initiatives throughout the western hemisphere. (1) 10 Essential Public Health Services. National Public Health Performance Standards Program (n.d.). 29 January 2010, Retrieved from: www.cdc.gov/od/ocphp/nphpsp/essentialphservices.htm.

Session Objectives: 1) Compare how the NPHPSP instruments and related EPHF instrument have been implemented in the U.S. and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. 2) Describe some of the general similarities and distinctions between public health systems in the U.S. and public health systems in LAC countries. 3) Discuss lessons learned from public health system assessment and strengthening initiatives throughout the western hemisphere.