AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Apr 5, 2007
April 2007, Vol 97, No. Supplement_1 | American Journal of Public Health S12-S14
© 2007 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.109405
Prepared to Serve Public Health
Neil E. Hann, MPH, CHES,
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH,
Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP and
Hector Balcazar, PhD
Neil E. Hann is with the Community Development Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma City. Mary E. Northridge is with the American Journal of Public Health, Washington, DC, and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY. Georges C. Benjamin is with the American Public Health Association, Washington, DC. Hector Balcazar is with the School of Public Health, University of Texas, El Paso, Tex.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Neil E. Hann, Community Development Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health, 1000 NE 10th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73117-1299 (e-mail: neil{at}health.ok.gov).
 |
INTRODUCTION
|
|---|
The idea for the first electronic-only supplement of the Journal devoted to public health preparedness was conceived on Saturday, December 10, 2005, in Room 102A of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa. The joint editors and editorial board meeting for the Journal was originally scheduled to be held on Saturday, November 5, 2005, in Hilton Grand Salon 10 of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in New Orleans, La. But Hurricane Katrina changed the venue for the 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association, as well as public health practice priorities for the entire nation.
In the wake of our grief over the lives lost and the damage wreaked on the Gulf Coast of the United States, we resolved to ensure that the Journal would be of service to those charged with preparing for and responding to future public health disasters. This necessitated a new approach to funding, editing, and publishing the Journal, which we approached with enthusiasm and integrity. As with any genuine collaboration, we encountered challenges as well as opportunities, detractors as well as supporters, and late as well as early adopters to this innovative undertaking.
|
THE FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH
|
|---|
When public health is functioning well, nobody notices. That is the way it ought to be. Public health is an everyday part of everyone’s life, and if we are doing our jobs well, most people do not realize the considerable impact of our activities on maintaining and improving population health and well-being. At the same time, given the rapid succession of the events of September 11, 2001, the anthrax attacks, and the destruction wrought by the Gulf Coast hurricanes, the public’s recognition of the importance of a public health workforce that is prepared to respond to the next unexpected threat has never been keener. The tragedy of far too many preventable deaths set into motion a national movement to strengthen and transform an ailing public health infrastructure from one that not only adeptly handles the annual surge in immunizations just before school starts but also responds to a mass immunization plan in the event of a confirmed smallpox case. As explained by Baker and Koplan, "It takes a system that is competent to handle routine public health situations to handle the emergencies."1(p15)
The foundation of public health preparedness is the front-line public health workers in the 3000 local health departments across the nation and the state health departments that support them. The same public health nurse that administers kindergartners a final series of immunizations just before the start of their academic careers will also be responding to pandemic flu. Public health preparedness never stops. It is the very core of public health, and every person that works in the public health field needs to be prepared for what the day may bring—routine or extraordinary.
|
JOURNAL’S COMMITMENT TO PREPAREDNESS
|
|---|
From a historical perspective, public health preparedness is not a new undertaking for the Journal. We have published regularly on this theme both before and after September 11, 2001, covering a breadth of topics (e.g., tobacco control, universal health care, vaccines, and bioterrorism), disciplines (e.g., ethics, health and human rights, and history), and populations (e.g., injection drug users, lesbians, and people living with HIV/AIDS). In the last year and a half alone, we have dedicated Journal covers to the city of New Orleans and its inhabitants (Figure 1
), the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Figure 2), and public health preparedness (Figure 3), all of which were intended to draw attention to this public health priority.
Despite having worked collaboratively on this supplement for close to a year, the topic remains fresh and timely for the involved editors. Colleagues deserving special mention include Daniel Tarantola and Bernard Dickens for editing the Health Policy and Ethics Forum devoted to "Preparedness for Infectious Threats," John Colmers and Deborah Holtzman for editing the Government, Politics, and Law collection of essays on "Legal Tools for Preparedness and Response," and Kenneth McLeroy for his contributions to editing the set of papers on "Toward a Prepared Future for Public Health." Finally, Michael Greenberg and Roger Vaughan stayed the course in editing the Research and Practice section concerned with public health threats as diverse as the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, the 2004 South Asian tsunami, the 2003 discovery of ricin in a South Carolina postal facility, and the 1995 Chicago heat wave.
|
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO INTRACTABLE PROBLEMS
|
|---|
In reality, however, it is ever more difficult to parcel out credit to individual editors or contain us within given departments or sections of the Journal. We have moved from being a multidisciplinary team to an interdisciplinary and international group of public health enthusiasts. This supplement is no exception to this editorial trend. Expect to see more interdisciplinary editorial work in future Journal issues. We believe that effective solutions to intractable problems will require interdisciplinary approaches both on the ground and in our (Web) pages.2
It would be wrong, however, to conclude that all authors—or all editors—are on board with electronic-only publication of peer-reviewed public health science and scholarship. Even as the official Journal of record is our electronic version, there were those who preferred to wait for a highly contested slot in one of our regular issues (published both online and in print) than to opt for earlier publication online only in this supplement.
Regardless of the pace adopted toward realizing the Journal’s editorial values of quality, timely, accessible, and useful public health information for our readers and the larger public, this supplement is a step in the right direction. Indeed, our vision for the Journal is to become the premier, most comprehensive source of public health information, and we trust that we are on the right track. In addition, a major goal of the Journal is to work in concert with the 3 main priorities of the American Public Health Association, namely, to develop universal coverage, eliminate health disparities, and rebuild the public health infrastructure.3 Preparedness is essential to all 3 of these aims, but it is especially so to the last.
|
AMASSING CREDIBLE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
|
|---|
It is especially apt that the first electronic supplement of the Journal be devoted to public health preparedness. Increased attention and resulting scrutiny have identified information technology systems as a vital tool and critical link in the public health infrastructure.4 A nationwide survey investigating local health department information technology needs and use uncovered weaknesses ranging from basic (e.g., limited Internet access at many local health departments) to complex problems (e.g., lack of a standard public health data architecture).4 Today, many of these weaknesses are being addressed, and there is a movement toward a national health information infrastructure to better ensure immediate and ubiquitous access to complete patient information and decision support.5
This electronic supplement may usefully be viewed as part of a deliberate plan to ensure that vital evidence-based information on public health preparedness is linked to other online resources. The lack of credible research on the impact of information technology on quality of care for patients and communities has been cited by a national consensus panel.5 In recognition of the importance of electronic means of communication, the editorial board adopted in its strategic plan the recommendation that the Journal enhance and expand its online publishing capabilities.
|
PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE?
|
|---|
In a further show of its support for this supplement and the future development of online publishing for the Journal, the editorial board actively sought funding. Our heartfelt gratitude is extended to the Southwest Center for Public Health Prepared-ness at the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health for its contribution to this noble undertaking.
The release of this supplement was timed to coincide with National Public Health Week in April 2007. We stand with the public health workers who are our frontline defense against serious health threats to individuals, families, and communities. The Get Ready campaign sponsored by the American Public Health Association provides accessible information, resources, and tools in the event of an influenza pandemic, outbreak of an emerging infectious disease, or other hazard or disaster.6 What has been missing to date is a link to authoritative science and scholarship on public health preparedness given copyright and other legal challenges.
Where this supplement fits into future plans to build an electronic repository on public health preparedness is yet to be determined. Ideas range from organizing past, current, and future Journal contributions on this topic into an easily accessible and searchable online database to translations of content into Spanish and other languages championed by our editorial board. Still, we would be remiss if we failed to give due credit to those responsible for bringing us to this point: a visionary editorial board, a devoted editorial team, a supportive publisher and staff, and thoughtful and generous authors and peer referees. We look to others to work with us and add their talents and resources to this collaborative undertaking to raise it up and make it all it can be. We honor those lost to us far too young by reaffirming our commitment to protect and serve those most vulnerable to future public health threats.
|
Footnotes
|
|---|
Contributors
N. E. Hann and M. E. Northridge contributed to writing and editing the editorial. G. C. Benjamin and H. Balcazar helped to conceptualize ideas and review drafts.
Accepted for publication January 2, 2007.
|
References
|
|---|
1. Baker EL, Koplan JP. Stengthening the nation’s public health infrastructure: historic challenge, unprecedented opportunity. Health Aff (Millwood). 2002; 21:15–27.[Abstract/Free Full Text]2. Northridge ME, Sclar ED, Feighery A, Fiebach MZ, Karpel Kurtz E. Reinventing healthy and sustainable communities: reconnecting public health and urban planning. In: Pitt International Conference on Inequality, Health, and Society. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins Press; 2007.
3. American Journal of Public Health. About the Journal. Available at: http://www.ajph.org/misc/about.shtml. Accessed December 29, 2006.
4. Magruder C, Burke M, Hann NE, Ludovic JA. Using information technology to improve the public health system. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2005; 2:123–130.[Medline]
5. Yasnoff WA, Humphreys BL, Overhage JM, et al. A consensus action agenda for achieving the National Health Information Infrastructure. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2004;11:332–338.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6. American Public Health Association. The Get Ready campaign. Available at: http://www.apha.org/getready/newsite.htm. Accessed December 29, 2006.
Copyright © 2007 by the American Public Health Association
TOP
INTRODUCTION
THE FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC...
