875: PHIG Showcases Public Health Success Stories

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, April 1, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

During Monday's interview with ASTHO Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Susan Kansagra, she discussed the need for public health to share its success stories where funding is making a difference in the health of communities. Today we bring you a PHIG Impact Report, a twice monthly segment that showcases stories from health departments around the nation and how they use Public Health Infrastructure Grant funds to solve problems. This morning, we get another perspective. We sat down with ASTHO CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter during the Spring Leadership Meeting [Forum] in Washington, D.C.

Dr Kanter, we appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. What impact have you seen from the Public Health Infrastructure Grant?

JOSEPH KANTER: 

The PHIG grant has been instrumental, and we're only halfway through it. It's, you know, it's almost a $5 billion investment, and we're, you know, just finishing up year two, etc. Public health has been chronically and systematically defunded for years, for all the reasons that we just talked about. No one really knows what we do half the time. Health departments have been years or sometimes decades, behind in things like IT development or other critical infrastructure, and when the pandemic hit, that became apparent. We heard stories of health departments having to sift through reams and reams of faxed lab results and trying to enter that data behind really antiquated systems that caught up with us and threatened our health at a highly critical time. The Public Health Infrastructure Grant is an opportunity to make serious progress on that very, very critical infrastructure. Public health is national security, but we don't under-fund other elements of national security the way that we have in public health, unfortunately, so this is a generational investment in the infrastructure that supports public health across the country. We're halfway through it right now. One of the things that I really like about the way the PHIG grant is structured is it's flexible, and it understands that what the Alaska Department of Health needs might not be the same as what California needs, or Nebraska, or anywhere else; that everyone has different needs, and the grant provides considerable flexibility for jurisdictions to make strategic investments in what they think will be impactful for their departments and ultimately their communities.

JOHNSON: 

From your perspective, what are some of those lessons learned from the grant?

KANTER: 

One lesson is the importance of creating a forum for people to communicate and collaborate. The saying goes, "If you've seen 50 health departments, you've seen 50 health departments." They're all different. They all have different challenges, but there are real big similarities and the ability to stay together and talk about those different challenges and approaches is really important. So, one of the things I've been proud through PHIG is we have been able to create forums for jurisdictions to talk about their work, talk about how they're making use of the investment, what their pitfalls are. A lot of similarities throughout the country. And being able to have those collaborative frameworks helps people you know not step in the same hall that someone else might have and learn and pay it forward, etc, that learning community has been really, really encouraging to watch.

JOHNSON: 

Are there any success stories you've heard that really stick out to you?

KANTER: 

There's tons of them, so many and so different. And again, because the funding has been rather flexible. Different jurisdictions have been able to utilize it in different ways and- and the needs are really, really vast, and we're only halfway through the grant right now. One of the things that's happening, you know, right now, as our members are on the Hill talking to their congressional offices, is they're explaining what those dollars are going towards, how they're impacting their community, what type of programs are resulting from that, and that's incredibly important. I'm excited to see what happens in the second half of this grant period. Again, we're only really halfway through the PHIG investment. I am optimistic that Congress will continue this investment, because it pays dividends. A dollar paid towards public health returns on a magnitude more, in terms of preventative care, community prevention and health, it's a really smart investment.

JOHNSON: 

Of course, the idea of sustainable public health funding is always a topic of interest, but especially so in light of just coming off the Hill. Can you elaborate?

KANTER: 

I think when congressional offices hear how this investment is directly impacting their community, they get it. That's the feedback that we've gotten from visits on the Hill, is that when you explain to a congressional office what is actually happening in their community and what type of programs are touching their constituents, they really do understand the importance of this investment. Let's be real. It's challenging times when you talk about budget and budget negotiations are ongoing right now, and they're probably going to change 20 times between now and tomorrow, and et cetera, et cetera. But the bottom line: investing in the public's health is a smart investment. It's an investment that returns dividends in terms of a healthier community, a healthier workforce, healthy children. Thriving communities have learned that this is a smart investment to make, and when you actually talk to congressional offices, they understand that.

JOHNSON: 

Dr. Kanter, it's always a pleasure.

For more information about the Public Health Infrastructure Grant and to learn more about the work that's underway, you can visit the PHIG website. We have 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.