141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

280119
Catalyzing the integration of New Hampshire's public health and medical care systems to promote and protect community health

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Holly Tutko, MS , NH Institute for Health Policy and Practice, University of New Hampshire, Bow, NH
Yvonne Goldsberry, PhD, MPH, MSUP , Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, Keene, NH
Jose Thier Montero, MD, MPH , Division of Public Health Services, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Concord, NH
Rudolph Fedrizzi, MD , Community Health Department, Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth Hitchcock-Keene, Keene, NH
Sharon Beaty, MBA, FACMPE , Mid-State Health Center, Plymouth, NH
Sharon Alroy-Preis, MD, MPH , Division of Public Health Services, NH Department of Health and Human Services, Concord, NH
Jeanne Ryer, MS , NH Institute for Health Policy and Practice, University of New Hampshire, Bow, NH
Integrating the work of public health and medical care practitioners to improve community health represents a strategic imperative advocated for by numerous national health policy reports (such as the National Prevention Guidelines) and is imbedded throughout the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Aligning the efforts of the public health and medical care disciplines requires addressing language and perspective differences, relationship building challenges, and the lack of infrastructure to support collective action. In 2010 the New Hampshire (NH) Citizens Health Initiative's Health Promotion Disease Prevention (HPDP) Workgroup, a multi-stakeholder effort to decrease the root causes of death and disability in NH, released a strategic plan to integrate the work of NH's public health and medical care systems to promote and protect the health of NH citizens. To advance plan recommendations, the HPDP developed a workplan with four objectives to catalyze integrated approaches to reducing tobacco use in NH, an identified state health priority. Objectives include: 1) building knowledge and skills required for integration, 2) catalyzing integrated, evidence-based interventions, 3) promoting integration best practices, and 4) securing resources to sustain integration work. This presentation will highlight and share: 1) workplan activities and tools initiated to foster integration approaches to tobacco use reduction (for example, a short primer for clinicians demonstrating the concept and value of integration) and 2) challenges and successes that may guide participants in their own integration efforts to improve both individual and community health.

Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Define the importance of and difficulties associated with integrating the work of the public health and medical care disciplines to promote community health. Describe activities undertaken and tools developed by a state level effort to advance public health and medical care integration strategies to improve both individual and community health, with a focus on tobacco. Outline challenges and successes experienced by a state level effort to facilitate public health and medicine integration.

Keywords: Community-Oriented Primary Care, Community-Based Public Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have coordinated the work of the NH Citizens Health Initiative's Health Promotion Disease Prevention effort to integrate the work of NH's public health and medical care systems for the past four years and am well-versed in existing research on public health-medical care integration.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.