Transforming Public Health in California (Part 2)

April 19, 2007
Legislative Office Building
1020 N Street, Suite 100
1:15 – 3:00 pm

Session Objective:

As of July 2007, California will have its first Department of Public Health housed within the Health and Human Services Agency. This opportunity affords a chance to step back and plan for a future characterized by skyrocketing chronic conditions, an aging and increasingly diverse population, and such threats as pandemics and bioterrorism. In this policy forum, two national visionaries suggested specific ways in which California’s public health system – both at the state and local levels – can be transformed. Two “home-based” (California) public health experts served as reactors and the incoming director of the new Department of Public Health gave his vision for the department and thoughts on the panelists’ comments.

Key Questions Answered:

• What structural changes (state and local) and infrastructure changes (including information technology) are needed to best meet the needs of California’s population? Is funding adequate to support needed changes?

• What opportunities exist for collaboration between the Department of Public Health and other state agencies, and between the Department of Public Health and private sector organizations? What will these collaborations achieve?

• What changes are needed to ensure that the public health workforce is prepared for the new roles expected of it?

• How can performance measurement tools help ensure that the Department of Public Health meets the ultimate goal of improving the public’s health?

Panelists included Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD (Professor, University of Washington), Leslie Beitsch, MD, JD (Director, Center on Medicine and Public Health, Florida State University College of Medicine), Dick Jackson, MD, MPH, (Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UC Berkeley), Poki Namkung, MD, MPH (Public Health Officer, Santa Cruz County and President of the National Association of County and City Health Officials) and Jeffrey Wasserman, PhD (Senior Policy Researcher, RAND)

* Mark Horton, MD, MPH (California State Public Health Officer and incoming Director, Department of Public Health)