A Novel Approach for Workforce Surveillance at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

BACKGROUND: Expert groups have recommended ongoing monitoring of the public health workforce to determine its ability to execute designated objectives. Resource- and time-intensive surveys have been a primary data source to monitor the workforce. We evaluated an administrative data source containing US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aggregate federal civil service workforce-related data to determine its potential as a workforce surveillance system for this component of the workforce. METHODS: We accessed FedScope, a publicly available online database containing federal administrative civilian HHS personnel data. Using established guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems and identified workforce characteristics, we evaluated FedScope attributes for workforce surveillance purposes. RESULTS: We determined FedScope to be a simple, highly accepted, flexible, stable, and timely system to support analyses of federal civil service workforce-related data. Data can be easily accessed, analyzed, and monitored for changes across years and draw conclusions about the workforce. FedScope data can be used to calculate demographics (eg, sex, race or ethnicity, age group, and education level), employment characteristics (ie, supervisory status, work schedule, and appointment type), retirement projections, and characterize the federal workforce into standard occupational categories. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that an administrative data source containing HHS personnel data can function as a workforce surveillance system valuable to researchers, public health leaders, and decision makers interested in the federal civil service public health workforce. Using administrative data for workforce development is a model that can be applicable to federal and nonfederal public health agencies and ultimately support improvements in public health.

The new global health.

Global health reflects the realities of globalization, including worldwide dissemination of infectious and noninfectious public health risks. Global health architecture is complex and better coordination is needed between multiple organizations. Three overlapping themes determine global health action and prioritization: development, security, and public health. These themes play out against a background of demographic change, socioeconomic development, and urbanization. Infectious diseases remain critical factors, but are no longer the major cause of global illness and death. Traditional indicators of public health, such as maternal and infant mortality rates no longer describe the health status of whole societies; this change highlights the need for investment in vital registration and disease-specific reporting. Noncommunicable diseases, injuries, and mental health will require greater attention from the world in the future. The new global health requires broader engagement by health organizations and all countries for the objectives of health equity, access, and coverage as priorities beyond the Millennium Development Goals are set.

Leveraging Rapid Response Activities to Build Public Health Capacity: Development of the Opioid Rapid Response Team Model.

As part of the federal response to the opioid crisis, the Opioid Rapid Response Team project (2018-2019) was created to provide rapid short-term assistance to requesting US jurisdictions responding to an acute opioid-related event. The project used an approach that maximized overall value by leveraging existing federal resources and harnessing opportunities to meet project-specific objectives while also enhancing general response capacity at the federal, state, and local levels. This tandem capacity building for both opioid rapid response and general response focused on systems and operations, workforce readiness, technical assistance, and partnerships. In this article, we demonstrate the ancillary value that issue-specific response activities can contribute to broader public health response capacity.

Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni in Public Health Leadership Roles.

Since 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has trained physicians, nurses, scientists, veterinarians, and other allied health professionals in applied epidemiology. To understand the program's effect on graduates' leadership outcomes, we examined the EIS alumni representation in five select leadership positions. These positions were staffed by 353 individuals, of which 185 (52%) were EIS alumni. Among 12 CDC directors, four (33%) were EIS alumni. EIS alumni accounted for 29 (58%) of the 50 CDC center directors, 61 (35%) of the 175 state epidemiologists, 27 (56%) of the 48 Field Epidemiology Training Program resident advisors, and 70 (90%) of the 78 Career Epidemiology Field Officers. Of the 185 EIS alumni in leadership positions, 136 (74%) were physicians, 22 (12%) were scientists, 21 (11%) were veterinarians, 6 (3%) were nurses, and 94 (51%) were assigned to a state or local health department. Among the 61 EIS alumni who served as state epidemiologists, 40 (66%) of them were assigned to a state or local health department during EIS. Our evaluation suggests that epidemiology training programs can serve as a vital resource for the public health workforce, particularly given the capacity strains brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Occurrence of Panstrongylus lutzi, in peridomiciliary areas, State of Ceará, Brazil]. / Ocorrência de Panstrongylus lutzi no peridomicílio, Estado do Ceará, Brasil.

From January 2001 to October 2002 captures were made in domicile and peridomiciliary areas of 13 cities of region of Cariri, south of the State of Ceará. As results, the occurrence of P. lutzi in this area was noticed, for the first time, in three cities: the presence of one adult in chicken house in Altaneira, one adult flying, in Salitre and 18 nymphs in Varzea Alegre(13 in bricks pile and five in roofing tile pile). In Varzea Alegre city it was observed the colonization in the peridomicile.