Dr. Joseph Kanter, ASTHO CEO, shares how ASTHO will use the Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey (PH WINS) to guide national public health priorities; Emma Pliskin, research scientist at Child Trends, shares what their new study reveals about trends in STI testing...
Dr. Joseph Kanter, ASTHO CEO, shares how ASTHO will use the Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey (PH WINS) to guide national public health priorities; Emma Pliskin, research scientist at Child Trends, shares what their new study reveals about trends in STI testing and why many patients are missing key testing opportunities; ASTHO is holding an INSPIRE: Readiness webinar tomorrow, Tuesday July 17, at 2 p.m. ET on the role of wastewater surveillance in preventing infectious diseases and navigating the ethical concerns that come with it; and a summary of the Tobacco Control Network’s office hour on federal policy and funding updates is now available online.
PHRME Episode 947: PH Workforce Survey, STI Education Credits
Child Trends Study: Missed Opportunities for STI Testing in Contraceptive Care
Tobacco Control Network Summary: TCN Office Hour on Federal Policy and Funding Updates
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, July 16, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
JOSEPH KANTER:
We need to be attracting bright, motivated, altruistic, committed people to our departments, and we have to be able to retain them. To be able to do that, you have to understand what it is that is motivating folks, what is causing stress. Why do people come to the profession and why might people leave.
SILVERS:
ASTHO's CEO, Dr. Joseph Kanter, is discussing the fourth iteration of the PH WINS survey. The survey gathers data from the public health workforce, and this year it expanded to include the territories and freely associated states.
KANTER:
The U.S. territories and freely associated states are such important members of our public health community. They're members of ASTHO. They contribute greatly. They're wonderful partners, but we have not included them to this extent in prior surveys. So, being able to include them and understand the particularities of their environments and how we can support their workforces is so crucial to what we do at ASTHO.
SILVERS:
Kanter says, now more than ever, we need to understand the current sentiments of the workforce.
KANTER:
We've had a wonderful participation rate. I think people in the public health profession are hungry to have their voice heard. We're coming out of the pandemic. Public health has been politicized. It's in the spotlight in ways that sometimes can be helpful, but sometimes not so helpful.
SILVERS:
For public health leaders especially, the survey is very valuable.
KANTER:
We have to listen. We have to listen to what people's concerns are, what their experiences are, and what their suggestions are. At the end of the day, that really is what PH WINS is all about. It's about listening to our public health workforce and trying to craft strategies responsive to their needs and wishes.
SILVERS:
de Beaumont CEO, Dr. Brian Castrucci, was on this show yesterday detailing the new PH WINS survey data. You can listen to that interview and learn more about the PH WINS survey by heading to the show notes.
A recent study found that contraceptive care patients often miss key opportunities to be tested for STIs, contributing to increasingly high rates of infection in the U.S. Emma Pliskin, with Child Trends, shares what the study revealed about trends in STI testing.
EMMA PLISKIN:
If a patient very much does not want to be tested, they should not be coerced into receiving tests. However, we also found that the most common reason patients identified for not receiving STI testing was that their provider did not ask about or offer testing.
SILVERS:
The study also found that non-Hispanic Black women had lower rates of missed opportunities than non-Hispanic white women, meaning black women were more likely to be STI tested.
PLISKIN:
On the surface, this might seem like a positive trend, but we know from extensive research, including other work from Child Trends, that women of color and black women face discrimination, often bias, and unfair treatment in accessing care, and it's possible that even implicit racist stereotypes around black women and other women of color, such as hypersexualization, might drive these high rates of STI testing.
SILVERS:
Pliskin says that siloing between the STI and contraceptive research fields may contribute to these missed opportunities, and hopes that an increase in communication about best practices could help improve patient-centered care.
PLISKIN:
You know, patients don't necessarily experience STIs versus contraception versus pregnancy or abortion as distinct parts of their health and well-being. All of these experiences are part of people's sexual and reproductive life course, and public health could do a better job of treating them as intertwined.
SILVERS:
The full study is available online now. We have a link in the show notes.
Also up this week, ASTHO is holding an INSPIRE: Readiness webinar tomorrow, Thursday, July 17, at 2 p.m. Eastern [Time] on the role of wastewater surveillance in preventing infectious diseases. The webinar will discuss how to navigate ethical concerns while weighing the benefits and risks to public health. You won't want to miss it. Use the link in the show notes to register for the event.
Now, finally, ASTHO's government affairs team and the American Lung Association participated in a recent Tobacco Control Network's office hour on federal policy and funding updates. To learn more about what was discussed, head to the link in the show notes for a summary of the update.
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.
