As a truly historic year comes to an end, many public health policy issues received a considerable amount of attention in 2020. Subjects such as the pandemic that will live on in infamy, racial health disparities, and the future of the ...
On Dec. 3, the International Day of People with Disabilities commemorates disability rights and brings awareness to essential issues for those with disabilities by promoting the “well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of ...
As we celebrate National Rural Health Day this year, we are reminded of how important telehealth can be for public health and healthcare. Telehealth can minimize challenges faced by rural patients and communities—such as transportation, ...
As public health officials lead the pandemic response, clear direction-setting in every state and territories is vital to assure our planning and implementation is fair and focused on those most at need. These are not entirely ...
Many pharmaceutical companies urgently began developing a COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year to reduce the spread of the virus as the threat of a pandemic loomed. Fast forward several months and millions of COVID-19 cases later, states and ...
Conditioning school attendance on student vaccinations is an evidence-based way of maintaining and increasing vaccine coverage. State law establishes school vaccination requirements which apply not only to public schools but often to ...
State and local jurisdictions are developing Ending the HOV Epidemic plans. The EHE initiative has largely focused on four key strategies: Diagnose, Treat, Prevent, and Respond to potential outbreaks. The EHE initiative set a goal to ...
The adage “what gets measured, gets done” has had staying power for a reason. When we can accurately describe conditions, quantify impact, and elucidate connections, we have a better chance at taking collective (and effective) action to ...
Deciding what book to read is a task in itself. To make things easier, ASTHO’s staff curated a list of page-turning and thought-provoking books guaranteed to be worth your time. There’s something for everyone on our list, whether ...
How to Support Youth Post COVID-19 With More Flexible Policies Caitlin Langhorne Griffith, Victoria Pless, Martha Yeide Over the past few months, COVID-19 has highlighted how current policies and funding do not support an equitable ...
More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and an additional 25% are at high risk of closure, and COVID-19 has magnified the existing stressors on rural healthcare. As a result, states are using a variety of measures to address ...
Many states have introduced bills to strengthen and increase access to these prenatal, delivery, and postpartum services, building a solid foundation of care for women who must navigate the healthcare system and make difficult decisions ...
This Health Policy Update is an overview of state legislative activity to increase financial stability for families during the COVID-19 pandemic which may help to prevent adverse childhood experiences.
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of heart disease, particularly in adults aged 35 to 64. This blog post breaks down ways the Surgeon General's report on smoking cessation may be helpful to state health officials.
Antibiotic resistance is an important public health and national security issue, but it is a mostly-preventable issue. Public health professionals can play a significant role in both increasing public information about antibiotic ...
CDC's Tom Chiller, MD, explains that in the United States, three main types of fungi can cause lung infections like pneumonia when people breathe in fungal spores from the air. Depending on where you live, you may be more likely to ...
Government affairs staffers from ASTHO and NACCHO discuss the value of a joint Hill Day in 2019 and the importance of building coalitions in advocacy.
As patients move around the healthcare ecosystem, information from electronic health records must be available and understandable to help public health agencies identify threats to the health and safety of the population, as well as ...
Ensuring access to competent primary care is an essential function of state and territorial health agencies. Research findings indicate that access to regular primary care is associated with higher rates of receiving preventive care and ...
Susan Ramsay describes what she has learned over the course of her career, what it takes to implement effective PM/QI initiatives, and how public health leaders can enhance their impact in this field.