Bloomberg American Health Initiative Holds Summit Meeting On Five
Critical Health Problems
Initiative Bets On
The “Power Of Public Health” To Help Reverse Decreasing Trend In US
Life Expectancy
The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health received a $300 million gift from
Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2016 in recognition of the School’s 100th
anniversary and the School is translating the gift into a challenging
and ambitious new undertaking called the Bloomberg American Health
Initiative (BAHI). According to Joshua Sharfstein, the
initiative’s director, the overarching goal of the initiative is to
bring the “public health way of thinking” to bear on five complex and
difficult health problems, including addiction and overdose,
adolescent health, environmental challenges, violence, and obesity and
the food system.
The Public Health
Way of Thinking
Asked about what makes
the public health way of thinking so valuable or effective, Sharfstein
said it’s the focus on outcomes and data, on understanding a problem
without regard to ideologies and using this information to inform
policies and strategies. He also includes engaging with communities as
an integral part of this public health approach.
Elements of the
Initiative
The BAHI has many
elements related to education, research, and practice including a
fellows program in which it intends to provide scholarships to 60
individuals each year who will receive masters or doctoral level
training in public health. As part of the fellows program, trainees
must commit to return to their sponsoring local organizations to apply
their public health training for at least one year or more.
Real World & Ivory
Tower
Sharfstein views the
new initiative as primarily focused not on any one element but overall
on having an impact and making a difference on the five selected
problems. In that sense, the initiative even though run by an academic
institution is more real-world than ivory tower. From descriptions of
the text in press releases and on the website, the BAHI can be
understood as the effort of a school of public health trying to
help the actual field of public health make a real difference
in the public’s health.
Real World Focus
As evidence of this
real-world focus, 1) multiple organizations devoted to the selected
problems were invited to the first summit meeting of the group held in
late November, 2) the program has made grants to investigators
interested in data translation activities, and 3) it has supported
faculty members to spend at least 100 hours working on the community
front lines. In addition, 4) the initiative has hired Amanda
Latimore, to serve as the Public Sector Initiatives Lead where she
works directly with public officials to support evidence based
practice, policy, and programs.
Public Health
Reports
A special supplement
to Public Health Reports published at the end of 2018 describes
the origins and purpose of the BAHI and presents the latest thinking
about approaches to the five complex problems being targeted by the
initiative. These papers are the products of special symposia
sponsored by the Bloomberg group on each of the topics which brought
together key individuals working on these problems to help create
action plans. The link to the supplemental issue is
https://bit.ly/2RkQ1rU
Cross-Cutting Activities
In addition to the
five target problems, the initiative is also calling attention to
three cross-cutting activities which can influence all five of the
problem areas, namely 1) generating evidence which is new, more
relevant and useful for policy makers and practitioners, 2) placing a
higher priority on addressing health equity, and 3) maximizing the use
of policy intervention as an effective means of achieving widespread
health impact.
Summit Meeting
At the Bloomberg
Summit meeting in late November, the theme was From Local Action to
National Impact: Overcoming Challenges and Improving Health. In
attendance were an estimated 350 persons including national leaders,
local practitioners, policymakers, innovators and allies from a wide
range of fields and disciplines. The conference was a very polished
and professionally executed affair with a series of multimedia
presentations in a variety of formats with speakers from multiple
organizations with different stories to tell about their challenges
and mostly their successes.
A 3 by 5 Initiative
Attendees were able to
network and hear many examples of successes in addressing the five
targeted problems the initiative is focused on. In addition, videos
were shown to identify 5 actions which could be taken in 5 years to
address each of the 5 topic areas which are the focus of the
initiative. To listen to a taped version of the conference, click here
https://bit.ly/2SjOz5H
According to BAHI, by
training individuals while also strengthening local organizations, the
BAHI is building a network of individuals and organizations across the
country — a network that reaches far beyond the traditional world of
public health. Firmly rooted within communities and involving direct
collaboration between national and local partners, Fellows, and the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the BAHI is an
ambitious effort to tackle some of society’s thorniest problems. ■
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