Member Projects

NNPHI manages several collaborative initiatives with its member institutes that result in measurable improvements to public health structures, systems, and outcomes.

NNPHI Enlists National Partners, Members in County Health Ranking Rollout

NNPHI manages a number of collaborative initiatives with its member institutes that are resulting in measurable improvements to public health structures, systems, and outcomes.  In 2009, NNPHI leveraged funds from a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to engage the capacity of 20 member institutes to assist in the national rollout of the County Health Rankings (CHRs).  The CHRs provide communities with reliable, comprehensive information about their health status and are tracked by the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project, a groundbreaking initiative implemented by University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI), an NNPHI member, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

Identifying social determinants of health and tracking health trends are crucial to informing wise investment—by policymakers, providers, and communities—in  population health improvement.  PHIs like UWPHI are leading efforts across the country to support health improvement through data collection and management.  UWPHI’s three-year MATCH project, intitiated in 2009, is developing CHRs for all 50 states. 

Because PHIs are uniquely positioned to provide non-biased analysis and engage multiple stakeholders in conversation and action, CDC identified them as vital partners in CHR dissemination.  As the national membership institute for PHI's, NNPHI leveraged funds from its cooperative agreement with CDC to engage its members’ capacities to assist in the national CHR rollout.  Of the 20 PHIs—all NNPHI members—that received  funding to participate, three examples are shared:

• The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) reached out to members of the local media, utilizing its existing relationships with journalists and broadcasters to broadly disseminate  the CHRs.  KHI’s experienced communications staff developed a media plan to alert and prepare reporters, television media, and state and local health department heads for the release of the CHRs.  Fifteen different publications and stations covered the CHRs, including three local television stations that featured the CHR rollout on their evening news programs.  KHI fielded numerous questions from each of these media outlets.
• Virginia’s Healthy Appalachia Institute (HAI), an emerging health institute, embraced its role as a politically neutral convener, bringing together over one-hundred stakeholders—including county administrators, educators, health district and system leaders, and chamber of commerce officials—for a day-long Health Summit.  HAI staff engaged Summit participants in dialogue and the CHRs and led them in developing a “treatment plan” for the area.   In addition to raising awareness of the region’s health issues and resources among diverse community leaders, HAI’s Summit resulted in the establishment of a regional diabetes program.
• The Illinois Public Health Institue (IPHI) capitalized on its organizational and administrative capacities to organize a conference call to brief local health departments on the CHRs prior to the national release.  Additionally, IPHI worked with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois Association of Public Health Administrators, and the Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium to organize and hold a legislative briefing at the state capitol.  IPHI encouraged policymakers to use the CHRs as a way to highlight their existing planning efforts and galvanize communities around the implementation of health policy responsive to their unique needs.

PHIs will continue supporting the CHRs’ 2011 rollout, leveraging capacities to educate policymakers and the public about their communities’ health status.