The Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) Initiative
This collaborative initiative includes public health, community-based organizations, schools, clinicians, and environmental health and justice groups to improve air quality and reduce asthma rates that disproportionally affect low-income African American and Latino communities. The groups’ success led to the passage of state-level diesel emissions regulations to reduce diesel particulate matter by 43 percent by 2020 which is expected to prevent 150,000 cases of asthma, 12,000 cases of acute bronchitis, and 9,400 premature deaths over the next 15 years. Economic benefits of the regulations are estimated at between $48 and $69 billion.
Shaping a Healthier Generation: Successful State Strategies to Prevent Childhood Obesity
The National Governors Association (NGA) released this report to offer direction to governors and other policymakers who want to craft children’s health policies that prevent obesity and advance the well-being of families. The report stresses how understanding the interrelated factors influencing children’s health such as family income, household education, and race and ethnicity can help policymakers effectively target services.
The eHealth Initiative
This initiative is a public-private collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seeking to bolster public health infrastructure and connectivity between multiple healthcare organizations and public health partners across the country that will ultimately help the nation’s public health surveillance capability and improve the delivery of care across the entire healthcare system. This data will be integrated and transmitted using CDC’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), which is a broad initiative designed to use national data and information system standards for the development of efficient, integrated, and interoperable surveillance systems at state and local levels.
Achieving Enhanced Physical Education: From Plan to Policy to Practice
Highlighting the Illinois State Team's progress in using the Community Guide to increase physical activity in schools, this report describes how they moved the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)’s evidence-based interventions into policy.
Healthy Families America (HFA)
The Healthy Families America (HFA) program is designed for parents facing challenges such as single parenthood; low income; childhood history of abuse and adverse child experiences; and current or previous issues related to substance abuse, mental health issues, and/or domestic violence. HFA aims to reduce child maltreatment, increase utilization of prenatal care, improve parent-child interactions and school readiness, and increase access to primary care medical services among other goals.
U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF)
The USPSTF annually provides evidence-based recommendations on clinical preventative services to empower health care professionals, health care systems, and the American people to make informed decisions about their health and healthcare. Their recommendations are based on comprehensive, systematic reviews of the available medical evidence to assess the effectiveness of a broad range of clinical preventive services, including screening, counseling, and preventive medications.
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
The ACIP is made up of 15 experts in fields associated with immunization to provide advice that will lead to a reduction in the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases in the U.S., and an increase in the safe use of vaccines and related biological products. The Committee develops written recommendations on the routine administration of vaccines to children and adults which includes the proper age, number of doses and dosing intervals, and precautions and contraindications.
The Community Guide
The Community Guide is a resource for evidenced-based recommendations and findings about what can improve public health. The guide is a free resource based on a scientific systematic review process to help select appropriate programs and policies to improve health and prevent diseases in communities.
Eliminating Healthcare Associated Infections: State Policy Options
This toolkit was created under collaboration between the CDC and ASTHO and provides an inventory of state healthcare associated infection (HAI) legislation and examples of legal and policy interventions to facilitate HAI prevention.
U.S. Health System Scorecards
These scorecards are developed by the Commonwealth Fund and measure the health system across many indicators of healthcare quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives.
Using Research in Public Health Policymaking
This state policy guide is a publication of the Council of State Governments (CSG) and describes the benefits of using research to make state policy decisions on public health and other health and human services concerns. This guide helps legislators and their staff to understand how to use research results to produce effective public health policies and programs and to spend public resources as wisely as possible.
The Community Health Promotion Handbook: Action Guides to Improve Community Health
Developed by the Partnership for Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this comprehensive evidence-based tool guides public health practitioners and others interested in promoting health through implementation of effective community-level health promotion practices. The five Action Guides also provide suggested resource needs, evaluation questions, tips for overcoming obstacles, and links to additional resources to help with planning and implementation.
