817: Illinois PHIG Impact Report

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, January 7, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Today, we bring you the first PHIG Impact Report for 2025. Twice a month, we'll bring information and new ideas on the Public Health Infrastructure Grant, otherwise known as PHIG, how your colleagues across the nation are using it, and how it's impacting the U.S. public health system. Today, we speak with ASTHO member, Dr. Sameer Vohra. Vohra leads the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Dr. Vohra, thanks for joining us. I know you and your team have highlighted data modernization and the bolstering of the workforce as priorities even before PHIG, but how have you increased those efforts with PHIG?

SAMEER VOHRA: 

We've been thrilled that through our PHIG funding, we've already filled 45 out of 80 new positions and dedicated $34 million to support our local health departments as a real investment in public health capacity for Illinois. We've also begun a partnership with local health departments and their associations to launch a once-in-a-kind Public Health Workforce Transformation Initiative to address the needs that are challenging in governmental public health systems. We've been doing this already by launching a three-tier training plan, which includes a leadership academy, supervisory skills training for managers, and a new public health residency program. And we're also really thinking about the future through a partnership with our University of Illinois system, relaunching our internship program that received over 430 applications last year, and now we're offering more than 260 professional development courses through our partnership with Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Now, there's so much here, but our hope is that we are both using this important grant to meet immediate needs and sort of build towards long-term sustainability, focused on getting the people, retaining them, but also thinking about important elements of staff well-being, to ensure that people know that these are jobs that make meaningful impact and that the organizations, our public health departments, are thinking about their well-being as we work to improve the health and wellness of our residents.

JOHNSON: 

Would you say you've learned any lessons while implementing PHIG?

VOHRA: 

Many lessons. I think part of it is the real excitement to have received funding like this from the CDC that is flexible in its appropriation. It represents almost a new model that allows health departments to direct resources where they're most needed, based on what they are seeing in their own jurisdictions, meeting things that we say all the time in our public health methods: that we need to meet the needs of our community, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach. And that's something here where doing that is truly transformational. I'd say the other thing that we're learning is that the public health system continues to need resources and support, but understanding that it is a time for us to use this money to think differently, build a more modern, coordinated system that really fits into where we are right now and beyond.

JOHNSON: 

Any other victories from PHIG you'd like to highlight?

VOHRA: 

Without this grant, we wouldn't have been able to strengthen our internal workforce, because we're not just feeling positioned, we're strategically adding key roles in areas like informatics, epidemiology, specialized support like legal and environmental health. Second, the Illinois Public Health Workforce Transformation Initiative, in partnership with our local health departments, simply wouldn't have been possible without this grant. Third, we're modernizing our data systems as well. We've established a data governance board and advisory committee where we're not just collecting data, but we're managing and using data as an asset, and we've enhanced our data infrastructure by migrating to new wave solutions like data lakes and using faster data exchanges through fast healthcare interoperability resources. Finally, we're also in a position to collect the right data to know how much resources we need, and then give us maybe the energy of saying, 'Well, if this is the funding that's necessary to build the system of today and tomorrow, how do we think innovatively with our constraints?'

JOHNSON: 

Dr. Vohra, as always, thanks for joining us on this newscast. Your insight into the work in Illinois is invaluable.

For more information about the Public Health Infrastructure Grant and to learn more about the great work going on, visit the PHIG website. There's a link in the show notes.

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