808: Infectious Disease Legislative Prospectus, Fifth DELPH Cohort Begins

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, December 11, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

ROBERT GOLDSTEIN: 

We have to have those tools in our toolbox. It's our responsibility to know when to use them, how to use them, so that we can best promote and protect health for people in each of the states.

SILVERS: 

ASTHO member, Dr. Robert Goldstein is commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health today continues ASTHO's Legislative Prospectus Series, which takes a look at five trends in public health law. Goldstein discusses the containment and prevention of the spread of infectious disease.

GOLDSTEIN: 

Schools are a really critical part of our vaccination program, because kids universally go to school in this country, it's a moment in time when we can use the levers of the state to make sure that people have what they need to protect themselves, and so giving public health departments the ability to link vaccination to school enrollment allows us to make sure that this evidence-based public health intervention has a maximal benefit.

SILVERS: 

His state is also taking steps to prevent the spread of STIs.

GOLDSTEIN: 

We're now allowing pharmacists to prescribe and dispense pre-exposure prophylaxis. We've also given pharmacists the ability to prescribe, dispense, and administer medications to treat sexually transmitted infections, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis.

SILVERS: 

Goldstein says data sharing is also critical to preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

GOLDSTEIN: 

So, we're working collaboratively with the academic medical centers and with the hospitals to develop the federated data networks that are necessary so we can understand what's happening in an emergency department in one part of the state and how it may impact care in a different part of the state.

SILVERS: 

ASTHO's full Legislative Prospectus Series is online now. Click the link in the show notes to learn more.

The fifth cohort of ASTHO's, Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health, or the DELPH program, is off and running. Allyson Belton, with the Morehouse School of Medicine, is one of the co-leads of the DELPH program and looks back at the start of the program.

ALLYSON BELTON: 

One thing I am in awe of is the caliber and the groups of applicants that we are receiving with each cohort's application cycle.

SILVERS: 

Throughout the five cohorts, Belton says the biggest impact is the wide DELPH alumni network.

BELTON: 

We've been able to create a network of individuals who can connect with each other regardless of what cohort they participated in, how many years ago that they were actually in the program.

SILVERS: 

Belton says DELPH will expand its footprint this year, adding several participants from states that are brand new to the program.

BELTON: 

We finally hit about three or four states that we have not touched at all, and we do have a very unique mix of positions and titles that we've not seen as well, so we'll have some different perspectives coming from that end, also.

SILVERS: 

Learn all about DELPH by clicking the link in the show notes.

Also today, ASTHO is excited to announce its newest member, Gina DeBlassie is interim cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health and brings more than 30 years of healthcare experience to her role. Make sure to drop her a note and welcome Gina DeBlassie to the ASTHO family.

Finally, make sure to sign up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly newsletter. All of ASTHO's announcements and news will be easy to access in your inbox each and every week. It's the perfect compliment to this newscast. Click the link in the show notes to sign up.

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.