791: ASTHO Innovation Advisory Council Launch, ASPR Hurricane Helene Response

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, November 14, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

GREG PAPILLON: 

The Innovation Advisory Council is a new initiative from ASTHO that's about creating a space for collaboration between leaders in both public and private sectors.

SILVERS: 

ASTHO is launching the Innovation Advisory Council, a brand new public/private advisory council that aims to address critical public health challenges. ASTHO's Greg Papillon explains.

PAPILLON: 

So, the goal is to tackle some of the biggest, most complex challenges facing public health today. It's not a one-time event. It's a year-round forum where public health leaders and industry experts can come together to exchange ideas and think through innovative solutions and find ways to align resources.

SILVERS: 

Founding members include Amazon Web services, Deloitte, CVS Health, and more. In all, 12 organizations are focused on several priorities to strengthen public health.

PAPILLON: 

Data modernization is one. Healthcare access, health securities, are all key priorities that the council is dedicated to making progress on. And then there are broader, longer-term opportunities around public health sustainability where I think cross-sector collaboration could really drive change and help make public health systems more resilient.

SILVERS: 

Papillon says the Innovation Advisory Council wants to hear from public health leaders.

PAPILLON: 

We would love to hear from you about what you see as, kind of, barriers to bringing new and fresh ideas to bear against these big health challenges. I think our council members would love to hear that; the board would love to hear that.

SILVERS: 

There's a news release online now. Use the link in the show notes to learn more.

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, under HHS, is taking a closer look at the Hurricane Helene response in North Carolina. Jonathan Greene is with ASPR.

JONATHAN GREENE: 

The work in North Carolina really was a number of the different capabilities that are within ASPR and specifically, the National Disaster Medical System, known as MDMS, where we provided a number of teams to do clinical care, healthcare in North Carolina, as well as provide specialists from our Disaster Mortuary Affairs group, or DMORT group, to assist the state and county officials with fatality management.

SILVERS: 

The response faced many challenges right out of the gate.

GREENE: 

The roadways in western North Carolina are really not only roadways, but the arteries for getting in and out of that area, not just to travel, commodities, goods, and people, but also utilities, underground buried communications. Those were totally wiped out.

SILVERS: 

Greene says the normal focus for training is on the usual places that experience natural disasters, but training should also happen in places that may see fewer disasters.

GREENE: 

I think the lesson learned there is that we need to double down and have our regional teams work that much harder with local infrastructure folks, emergency managers, and health officials to understand what the capabilities of the health systems are on a 'blue sky day.'

SILVERS: 

Also today, ASTHO and the National Community Action Partnership are hosting a webinar focused on lessons learned from the Vaccine Equity Project. This is your chance to explore strategies to continue addressing health disparities. The webinar is on November 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Use the link in the show notes to sign up.

Finally, this morning, ASTHO wants to remind you about its Public Health Weekly newsletter, the perfect compliment to the Morning Edition newscast. Each installment covers the latest public health news, ASTHO's work with Congress and the White House, policy happenings in the states and territories, and much more. There's a link to that in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.