Below is the Council on Linkages Update for January 2018. Please feel free to use all or part(s) of this update in your organization's newsletter or other communications.

New AHD Webinar to Explore How Academic Health Department Partnerships Can Support PHAB and CEPH Accreditation

Academic health department (AHD) partnerships – formal partnerships between health departments and academic institutions – have the potential to offer all organizations involved a variety of benefits. Join the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice and the Public Health Foundation on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 from 1-2pm EST to explore how AHD partnerships can support achieving and maintaining accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) for health departments and Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) for academic institutions. Representatives from PHAB and CEPH will join the webinar to share ways that accreditation efforts can benefit from partnerships and will be available for questions and discussion. This webinar is free and open to all members of the public health and healthcare communities. Please visit the webinar webpage for more information or to register and contact Kathleen Amos at kamos@phf.org with any questions.

Share Your Feedback to Help Shape Competencies for Performance Improvement Professionals

Does your work involve activities in the areas of quality improvement, performance management, workforce development, accreditation, or community health assessment and improvement? Are you actively engaged in supporting your organization’s performance improvement (PI) efforts? Your help is needed to ensure a set of competencies for PI professionals best meets the needs of the public health workforce! Feedback is currently being accepted on a draft set of Competencies for Performance Improvement Professionals in Public Health (PI Competencies), designed to align with the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals, and will inform further refinement of the competency set for release later this year. Visit the Public Health Foundation’s website to learn more about the variety of ways feedback can be submitted or share your thoughts directly through this online feedback form. Feedback is welcome through March 31, 2018. Questions about the draft PI Competencies or opportunities for sharing feedback can be sent to Kathleen Amos at kamos@phf.org.

Competencies for Population Health Professionals Available for Feedback

Feedback is currently being accepted on a draft set of Priority Competencies for Population Health Professionals (Population Health Competencies) based on the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals that are under development to support non-clinical hospital, health system, public health, or healthcare professionals engaged in assessment of population health needs and development, delivery, and improvement of population health programs, services, and practice. Are you passionate about population health? Is community benefit work a core part of what you do? Contribute to the development of these competencies to support the population health workforce! Feedback on the draft competencies is welcome through March 31, 2018 and will be used to finalize this competency set for release later this year. Read the recent post, Share Your Feedback on Competencies for Population Health Professionals, on the PHF Pulse blog to learn more about opportunities for providing feedback or share your feedback directly through this online feedback form. Questions about the draft Population Health Competencies or sharing feedback can be sent to Kathleen Amos at kamos@phf.org.

Latest Ask the AHD Expert Column: Pursuing Multiple AHD Partnership Opportunities

With so many possibilities for creating successful academic health department (AHD) partnerships, how do you know where to start? This fourth column in the Ask the AHD Expert series on the PHF Pulse blog considers the development of AHD partnerships with multiple organizations. Explore this promising situation with Bill Keck, MD, MPH, Chair of the AHD Learning Community, and contribute to his checklist of considerations for making the best start within an AHD partnership. Read Ask the AHD Expert: Pursuing Multiple AHD Partnership Opportunities to learn more, and contact Kathleen Amos at kamos@phf.org with any questions.

Upcoming Webinar to Highlight Innovation and Quality in Public Health

How can public health better position itself and its work as innovative in an environment where public health and healthcare are moving closer together? How do public health organizations assume a vital role as the community chief health strategist, bringing together diverse community players to make meaningful progress on community health issues? Join the Public Health Foundation for a webinar on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 from 2-3pm EST to explore how the Oklahoma City-County Health Department is moving its community forward to improved population health with innovation. This webinar is free and open to all. Please visit the webinar webpage for more information or to register and contact Kathleen Amos at kamos@phf.org with any questions.

Call for Abstracts Open for American Public Health Association Annual Meeting

The American Public Health Association’s (APHA’s) Academic and Practice Linkages in Public Health Caucus (APLPHC) is currently accepting abstracts for APHA’s 2018 Annual Meeting to be held November 10-14 in San Diego, CA. The APLPHC, sponsored by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health in partnership with the Public Health Accreditation Board, provides a forum for exploring and discussing innovative approaches and effective interventions that support practice, education, and applied research by building bridges between academia and practice. The call for abstracts highlights several topics focused on partnerships between public health practice and academia. Submit your abstract online by Friday, February 23, 2018, and contact Sarah Weiner at sweiner@aspph.org with any questions.