Activity

Activity Description

A committee of 18 members will be convened to examine ways to strengthen the public health system. The committee will address a series of 3 topics and will produce 3 consensus reports, over a period of 2.5 years.

Committee on Public Health Strategies to Improve Health

Statements of Task (SOT)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has asked the Institute of Medicine to convene a committee to consider three major and related topics in public health. The committee will explore the topics in the context of contemporary opportunities and challenges, and with the prospect of influencing the work of the public health system in the second decade of the twenty-first century and beyond. The committee will prepare three reports—one on each topic—containing actionable recommendations for public health agencies and other actors with roles in U.S. population health.

SOT 1

The committee will review population health strategies, associated metrics, and interventions in the context of a reformed health care system. The committee will review the role of score cards and other measures or assessments in summarizing the impact of the public health system, and how these can be used by policy makers and the community to hold both government and other actors accountable and to inform advocacy for public health policies and practices.

SOT 2

The committee will review how statutes and regulations prevent injury and disease, save lives, and optimize health outcomes. The committee will systematically discuss legal and regulatory authority; note past efforts to develop model public health legislation; and describe the implications of the changing social and policy context for public health laws and regulations.

SOT 3

The committee will develop recommendations for funding state and local public health systems that support the needs of the public after health care reform.  Recommendations should be evidence based and implementable.  In developing their recommendations the committee will:

·        Review current funding structures for public health

·        Assess opportunities for use of funds to improve health outcomes

·        Review the impact of fluctuations in funding for public health

·        Assess innovative policies and mechanisms for funding public health services and community-based interventions and suggest possible options for sustainable funding.

This project is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Reports

The committee’s first two consensus reports, on measurement and funding, respectively, have been released and are available at www.iom.edu/measuringhealth and www.iom.edu/lawandhealth.

The committee’s third and final consensus report (on public health funding) will be released in early 2012.