On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, David A. Goldberg will speak about the new federal transportation bill and what it means for people's health. Goldberg has been a leader in the movement for sustainable communities and transportation reform for over a decade. His talk, entitled "The New Federal Transportation Bill: Implications for Health and Safety," will be at the University of Washington in the Health Sciences Center, Room H-670. This discussion is part of the Healthy Places Research Group series, which invites speakers monthly during the academic year.

The timing of Goldberg's talk couldn't come at a more crucial time. The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is busy with legislation in the US House about transportation reform. It is the largest transportation reform bill since the interstate highway system was created in 1956. So, not surprisingly, this bill will have tremendous impact on the health of communities, the accessibility of active transportation, and the direction of our local, state, and national transportation networks.

According to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act will reform and streamline programs, cut red tape in the project approval process, increase states' flexibility in determining their most critical transportation needs, and encourage private sector participation in financing and rebuilding infrastructure. Goldberg will discuss this new bill and its implications for health and safety.

Goldberg is currently the Communications Director for Transportation for America. Previously, Goldberg was the Communications Director for Smart Growth America, where he assisted dozens of organizations at the national, state and local levels in developing winning messages and building a movement around those issues. He is the author of Choosing Our Community's Future: A citizen's guide to getting the most from development and Rethinking the American Dream, a popular handbook for journalists covering planning issues.

The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice and the Department of Urban Design and Planning invite you to attend the monthly meeting of the Seattle Healthy Places Research Group (HPRG). This group welcomes public health and planning faculty, researchers, students, practitioners, and others interested in exploring the relationship between the built environment and the health of communities.

On August 5–10, 2012, researchers, public health professionals, health care providers, governmental representatives, and community leaders will have a unique opportunity to meet and discuss issues relevant to the health of Arctic peoples.

During this meeting, participants in the 15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health (ICCH), held every three years, will convene in Fairbanks, Alaska to share research and community strategies for regional health issues. Residents from Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and the US are expected to attend.

"As the logo suggests, circumpolar health is coming full circle, with the return of this international meeting to Fairbanks," said Rhonda Johnson, American Society for Circumpolar Health Board Member and member of the ICCH15 Steering Committee.

"The very first Circumpolar Health Congress was held in Fairbanks in 1967, and in the intervening 45 years, our understanding of shared health concerns has substantially improved, as have the living conditions and health status of northern residents," said Johnson. "The American Society of Circumpolar Health (ASCH) looks forward to hosting this influential conference, welcoming 600–800 participants, and with the help of many partners, providing updates and insights gained from research, service, and community leadership and engagement."

As discussed in a previous article published in Northwest Public Health, both long-standing and emerging issues threaten public health in the Arctic. In these frequently isolated and remote communities, occupational and transportation-related injury prevention and food accessibility, safety and security were and continue to be challenges. Along with these well-known concerns, erosion of village infrastructure due to climate change and exposure to toxic substances from resource extraction create additional threats.

Act soon to be a part of this unique opportunity. Registration is now open; abstracts for presenters are due February 10, 2012.

Deb Hinchey, a graduate of the University of Washington School of Public Health (UW SPH) and a former Research Assistant at NWCPHP, is the new UW SPH Director of Student Services. In her new role, Hinchey will work directly with UW SPH graduate and undergraduate students to enhance their educational experience.

Speaking of her new position, Hinchey says, “As an alumna, I am both familiar with and truly believe in the UW SPH and the outstanding education provided to future leaders in the field of public health. This position allows me to blend my passion for public health with my passion for working with students. I look forward to connecting students to meaningful practicum experiences and career paths, supporting student organizations, creating networking and social events, or advocating for student needs. The possibilities are limitless!”

Hinchey’s most recent position was at Seattle University, where she spent five years in the Student Development Division. During this time she created and founded its Office of Student Wellness. Hinchey has extensive experience in higher education, including advising students and student groups, developing campus-wide policies, overseeing graduate internship and practicum projects, implementing conferences and educational events, leading workshops, and recruiting and training student leaders. At Seattle University, she developed an award-winning peer education program and received national recognition for her work. She has presented to diverse audiences on topics that include stress management, sexual health, and program assessment.

In the two years Hinchey worked at NWCPHP, she was on a team that developed a Regional Academic Environmental Public Health Center that was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hinchey was also part of the team that planned and implemented the first annual University of Washington/University of British Columbia/Simon Fraser University Public Health Symposium: US/Canada Academic Collaboration in the Pacific Northwest.

Reflecting on her time at NWCPHP, Hinchey says, “My time at NWCPHP allowed me to work closely with diverse faculty and staff whom I may not have otherwise collaborated with. I was also able to deepen my knowledge in specific areas of public health, most notably through my work around program assessment and evaluation as well as with the Regional Academic Environmental Public Health Center.”

In 2006, Hinchey received her Master’s degree in Public Health in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program at the University of Washington. She also has a BA in Communications from the University of Calgary.

In her free time, Hinchey can be found outdoors, trail running, cycling, climbing, and skiing.

Last week, the University of Washington School of Public Health launched a new strategic plan. Dean Howard Frumkin began the kick-off meeting by telling an audience of faculty, students, and community supporters that 2011 was a good year for the School.

Some of the School’s accomplishments in 2011 included an increase of research funding by 20 percent, recruitment of diverse faculty, and service to communities throughout the state. The School effectively leveraged state funding, bringing in 20 research dollars for every state dollar received. Frumkin praised the School for its leadership in “breakthrough science,” including highlighting NWCPHP faculty Hendrika Meischke and her colleagues for their work studying hearing loss among construction workers.

Frumkin made it clear that the new strategic plan builds on past successes. It will guide the School through future challenges that include the decrease in state funding for higher education, stagnant federal research dollars, rising tuition, and inadequate facilities.

The strategic plan documents a renewed commitment to the School's mission of "education, research, and service" and emphasizes goals for strengthening these core functions. Activities to strengthen teaching include: reviewing the MPH curricula, hiring a new director of student services, and expanding the undergraduate program. Earlier this academic year, School leadership transferred the undergraduate program from the College of Arts and Sciences to the School of Public Health. The School has committed to doubling the program's enrollment next year. The new global health minor and PhD program in implementation science are also examples of exciting new education initiatives.

A key component of the strategic plan is its commitment to community. The document emphasizes a desire to strengthen external community collaborations through enhanced practica. Cultivating an internal sense of community through improved communications and student space is also a priority.

Dean Frumkin reminded the audience that "our battles aren't easy to win," but a sense of shared values, especially courage, will help us "make a big footprint" in the following emerging public health challenges: global environmental change, genomics, food and physical activity, health policy, implementation science, and the social determinants of health.

In the coming weeks, the planning committee will outline an implementation strategy and define key milestones and metrics. Dean Frumkin asked for continued engagement in the process and told the audience, "We've had forty great years as a thriving institution, and I couldn't be more excited to move into our next phase."

The Epi Scholars Program is now accepting applications for Summer 2012. The Epi Scholars Program is a national program that offers paid 10–12 week summer internships in applied epidemiology research. Eligible applicants must be qualified public health masters and doctoral level students enrolled in one of 15 participating universities. The application deadline is February 15, 2012.

Students in the Epi Scholars Program may chose from projects at Public Health - Seattle & King County, Los Angeles County Health Department, and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In addition to working on substantive applied epidemiology projects, the scholars also have the opportunity to be mentored by senior public health epidemiologists. The scholars focus on health disparities research in public health practice settings, complete a quantitative data analysis, and write a report of the findings. Participants also complete a series of supplementary workshops on applied epidemiology topics.

The 2012 internship takes place June 11–August 17, 2012. Each scholar will receive an $8,400 stipend.

Applicants should have completed graduate level epidemiology and biostatistics coursework (equivalent to courses required during the first year of the epidemiology Masters in Public Health program) and experience analyzing data. The Epi Scholars Program is looking for an excellent record of academic achievement, commitment and/or demonstrated interest in applied public health research, and potential for future leadership in the public health sector.

Application materials may be found at the national Epi Scholars Program website. Also, Public Health - Seattle & King County has more information for those interested in the program at that agency. For additional information, contact Karen Hartfield at epischolars@kingcounty.gov.

Participating Universities:

• Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
• Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
• George Washington University School of Public Health
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Oregon Health and Science University
• San Diego State University
• Stanford University
• Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
• University of California, Berkley
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor School of Public Health
• University of North Carolina School of Public Health at Chapel Hill
• University of Southern California
• University of Washington
• Yale School of Public Health

Text messaging could be an effective way to convey public health emergency information to a variety of populations, both before and after a disaster strikes. That's why the Northwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center has been researching text messaging in a public health context since 2008. 

This work, directed by researchers at Public Health - Seattle & King County (PHSKC), led to the creation of a four-part video series which was awarded the silver award from the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) in late 2011.

"This video series is aimed at health departments that want to provide timely, credible information to their residents in a low-cost, effective way," said one of the research co-investigators, Hilary Karasz, PhD. “Mobile technology, particularly text messaging, has been embraced by a variety of audiences who want information delivered to them directly on their mobile phones. This video series should provide health agencies with what they need to know to join the mobile revolution.”

The video series is broken down into four chapters, providing key information for organizations considering implementing text messaging within their public health programs. PHSKC researchers looked at how and why people use texting, what audiences want from public health departments in texting programs, how text messaging works, and considerations when implementing texting programs. The video series is the most recent addition to a bundle of resources that have been made available for other health departments interested in texting programs.

This five-year research project was funded in 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is housed in NWCPHP.

Related resources:

The video series

The research project about text messaging for public health emergencies

The National Public Health Information Coalition awards announcement

The fifth graders were getting restless. Latrissa “Trish” Neiworth could hear scattered fidgeting and whispering while she tried to walk the class through a story problem. As an experienced substitute teacher, Trish knew that the students’ lack of attention was probably due to a widespread lack of understanding about how to solve the problem.

Quickly changing her approach, Trish said, “Put away your math books and take out a piece of paper and some markers.” She then explained how to make Venn Diagrams. Teaching this strategy did the trick. Soon students were excitedly raising their hands and calling out answers.

“I have a passion for helping others learn, whether it’s a group of school children or a class of adult learners,” Trish says, who uses her background in education to help out local schools when she can. As the new curriculum development specialist at NWCPHP, Trish draws on more than 20 years of professional experience in education, public health, and communications.

Before joining NWCPHP, Trish developed training and provided educational outreach for the State of Oregon’s Public Health Division. In the past five years, Trish has been recognized three times by the National Public Health Information Coalition for excellence in public health projects. She is an accomplished professional trainer and has helped adult learners improve their writing, speaking, communication, and leadership skills. In addition, Trish is a documentary producer, recognized regionally and nationally. Her past projects include an Emmy-nominated documentary about the pioneers who traveled The Oregon Trail. Earlier in her career, Trish worked as a broadcast and print journalist for local media in Oregon and Idaho.

Working at the University of Washington is like “coming home, in a way,” says Trish, who grew up on the coast of Washington State in Grays Harbor County. As a child, she spent many weekends traveling to the Seattle area. She continues to spend time traveling, as she works to finish a doctoral degree in education at Pepperdine University in California. A recent paper of hers relating to her studies on learning styles, brain dominance, and effective curricula will be part of the conference proceedings this month at the 2012 Hawaii International Conference on Education.

In addition to her thriving professional and scholarship activities, Trish loves spending time with her husband Joe, and their children, Emma and Alex. But as you might imagine, education is often a topic of family conversations. Joe is a high school basketball coach and 11-year-old Alex helps out at the games. Emma studies pre-medicine and science at Portland State University. “I guess I’m destined to be in some kind of educational mode, whether I’m at work or at home,” Trish laughs. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

When a major earthquake strikes or an influenza pandemic becomes deadly, most people assume that health care workers will continue to report to work. But this may not be a correct assumption. During public health emergencies, health care workers are faced with complex professional and personal considerations. Some workers may find it impossible to report to work; others may be unwilling.

Not wanting to underestimate the complexity health care workers face in public health emergencies, researchers across the country have begun to study the factors that influence health care worker choice to report to work during an emergency. Public Health - Seattle & King County (PHSKC) recently contracted with NWCPHP to look at this in King County, Washington. This recently published study was conducted by NWCPHP faculty member Andy Stergachis, PhD and NWCPHP Associate Director, Luann D’Ambrosio, MEd in collaboration with PHSKC and the King County Health Care Coalition. The study was supported by a Healthcare Facilities Partnership Award to PHSKC from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The article is published in the December 2011 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness and shares the results of a survey sent to over 9,000 health care workers in King County, with a 50 percent response rate. The goal of the survey was to assess the factors that may affect the ability and willingness of health care workers to report to work in two scenarios: an influenza pandemic and a severe earthquake. In either scenario, the respondents were told to assume that both they and their families were okay.

“We found that the ability and willingness to report to work were high for all respondents,” said Stergachis.

For the influenza pandemic scenario, 95 percent of respondents reported that they would be able and 89 percent reported that they would be willing to report to their usual place of work. Similar, but slightly lower numbers were reported for the severe earthquake scenario. Respondents also identified potential barriers to reporting to work. For the influenza scenario, 51 percent of respondents said that fear or concern for their family would be a barrier. More specifically, 57 percent of respondents with children 18 and under living at home reported that child care obligations could keep them from returning to work. In the earthquake scenario, transportation concerns were at the top of the list of potential barriers.

When asked what would help them report to work during an influenza pandemic, respondents indicated that anti-viral treatment for themselves and their families was crucial. The ability to work from home also ranked highly. In the aftermath of a severe earthquake, respondents indicated that assistance with transportation would influence their ability to return to work.

The study’s researchers point out that a limitation of the study is that in the event of a severe earthquake, for example, it is likely that health care workers may not know the status of family members immediately after the event occurs. The study authors also acknowledge that there are many factors that influence a person’s decision to return to work during an actual emergency. But a growing evidence base is shedding light on how organizations can begin planning now to help health care professionals report to work when a public health emergency arises.

When more than 50 percent of a state's villages and towns are not connected by roads, distance education can no longer be considered a novelty. These days, University of Alaska Anchorage students can earn a Master's degree in Public Health without ever traveling to a university campus.

The University of Alaska Anchorage is one of the few accredited MPH degree programs in the nation that is offered entirely online. The program attracts a wide array of students, from recent baccalaureate graduates to mid-career professionals. The diversity of the program's student body, coupled with the distance-based format, creates rich connections but also poses some challenges.

"We have a wide range of students who all learn differently," noted Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hodges Snyder, PhD, MPH. "We are always looking for new ways to incorporate various teaching methods so that we are discussing concepts in multiple ways."

Snyder uses online discussion boards, recorded audiovisual lectures, and assigned readings, all delivered in weekly units on an online learning area. She also links to NWCPHP online courses to augment her teachings.

"I'm very glad to have these resources, especially the discussion of logic models. Students seem to struggle with logic models, and it's amazing to have a second resource to offer them if they don't understand the way I explain it," Snyder said.

In her recent program evaluation class, Snyder incorporated NWCPHP's Data Collection for Program Evaluation, Logic Models and Outcome Measurement, and Program Evaluation in Environmental Health into her syllabus.

In addition to the training modules, Snyder says she also refers students to NWCPHP's monthly e-postcard series, We Are Public Health. "It's a nice thing to pass along to students every month during the semester. It provides them with examples of what they might find themselves doing as public health professionals."

In addition to her work at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Snyder also teaches a distance-based soil, water, and public health course for the University of Florida.

Please note: NWCPHP is always interested in learning more about experiences with distance-based learning formats to better inform the online trainings we provide. If you have any input you would like to share, please e-mail nwcphp@u.washington.edu.

Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone. It is easy to forget this because the best-known type of cardiac arrest, the “heart attack,” commonly strikes older adults. But there are other ways that a heart’s electrical rhythm can be disrupted, and people of all ages can experience cardiac arrest.

NWCPHP staff were reminded of this information during a recent in-house training on hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The training was led by Devora Eisenberg Chavez, NWCPHP Research Coordinator. Eisenberg Chavez is part of a research team that is studying how 911 dispatchers can most effectively communicate hands-only CPR instructions to Limited English Proficient callers. As part of the research for this study, a special manikin was purchased that can measure depth of compressions as well as hand location. This information is critical in determining if the CPR being given would be effective on a human victim.

This month, Susan Allan, Director of NWCPHP, arranged for NWCPHP staff to receive training from Eisenberg Chavez on hands-only CPR. When introducing hands-only CPR, Eisenberg Chavez said, “CPR is so simple right now. Just push hard and fast in the middle of the chest, right in line with the victim’s nipples. That’s it.” She provided further guidance, “When you take the first step of calling 911, put your phone on speaker phone. That way you can talk to the dispatcher while giving CPR.”

Staff then practiced hands-only CPR trying to make sure they were pressing hard enough to be effective while counting 100 compressions per minute. “I just couldn’t believe how hard you have to press!” one participant exclaimed. Eisenberg Chavez noted, “People tend to worry that they are pushing too hard. If your hand is in the right place, between the nipples, then you cannot push too hard.”

Hands-only CPR is a not substitute for professional, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) assistance. Rather, the goal of hands-only CPR is to keep the victim alive until these services arrive. 

More information about hands-only CPR

A free phone app with information about how to provide CPR and assistance to persons who are choking

More information about NWCPHP research projects

More information about regional efforts to improve 911 response to cardiac arrests

Imagine you are a manager at a county health department. You want to start up a farmers market to improve nutrition in elderly people in the community. You know that this population lacks access to nutritious food, and you think that having a weekly market would help them make healthier choices.

Would this venture succeed in improving nutrition? It seems like a good idea, but how would you test it?

Determining whether an idea is feasible can be challenging. That's why NWCPHP is pleased to announce a new online training, Feasibility Planning for Public Health Business Plans. This training will take you through the process of creating a feasibility plan to determine whether a business idea is worth pursuing. The course will help you determine what to consider and which sources will provide pertinent information when writing a feasibility plan.

The course takes approximately 75 minutes to complete and can be taken in one session or over many sessions. It's available at no cost to the public.

Feasibility Planning for Public Health Business Plans is the second in a two-part series. The first course, Business Planning for Public Health Programs, will help you understand the basics of business planning and determine if writing a business plan is appropriate for your public health program. After these initial evaluation efforts, but before you invest the time and energy into developing a complete business plan, you can start with a short feasibility plan to find out if your idea will work.

At the end of the Feasibility Planning module, individuals should be able to:

• Answer the question, “Is this a good idea?”

• Gather data and research information needed to write the feasibility plan.

• Write a feasibility plan (in preparation for a full business plan).

A new tool is now available to assist public health agencies to identify preparedness and emergency response training needs.

Earlier this year, NWCPHP collaborated with the Washington State Department of Health to survey the training needs, interests, and modality preferences of their public health workforce. The instrument assessed current confident levels and training needs in public health emergencies and included questions on delivery preferences, barriers to training, and priority general workforce development topics areas.

The assessment was created using two national frameworks. Competency statements were developed to reflect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new Public Health Preparedness Capabilities: National Standards for State and Local Planning. The assessment included questions that were designed to reflect the functions and tasks listed for each of the fifteen preparedness capabilities. Additionally, statements from the Public Health Preparedness & Response Core Competency Model were included to assess confidence and training need surrounding these newly developed competencies by the CDC, Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers (PERLCs) and Association of Schools of Public Health.

This assessment tool is now available for state, local, and tribal public health agencies and partners to utilize as a template. Sample questions and a description of the emergency preparedness training needs assessment is available on our Evaluation website. If you would like more information about the template, please contact Luann D’Ambrosio.

Scholarships are now available for students to attend the Annual Occupational, Environmental, and Public Health Conference in Blaine, Washington, January 5–7, 2012. Free attendance, lodging, and meals are available for students selected to present their research at this year's conference, hosted by the University of Washington, University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University.

Oral presentations: One student from each conference-sponsoring university will be selected to present a 15- to 20-minute oral presentation of their research. Students interested in presenting should submit their name, university affiliation, and a 250-word abstract.

Poster presentations: Five students from each conference-sponsoring university will be selected to present a poster of their research. Students interested in displaying a poster should submit their name, university affiliation, poster title, and brief description of poster.

All submissions should be emailed to Karen West, Assistant to the Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at klhanson@u.washington.edu. The deadline is Friday, December 9.

A committee of representatives from each school will select student presenters. Those selected will be given lodging (Friday night), meals (lunch and dinner on Friday), and admission to the conference (Friday and Saturday).

This year's conference, Changing Environments and Population Health (US and Canada), will be held at the Semiahmoo Resort from January 5–7, 2012. The gathering is designed to explore cross-border issues in a setting intimate enough to foster discussion among researchers and students. Additional information, including registration, is available on the conference website.

What do Everett Fire Department firefighters and paramedics worry about? At the top of the list are sleep deprivation, increased cancer risk, an aging workforce, and increased call volume. This is what NWCPHP faculty Randy Beaton, PhD, EMT, recently learned when he rode along with the Everett Fire Department firefighters and paramedics to better understand the pressures they face.

"Much has changed since I worked with the Everett Fire Department in the 1990s," Beaton explained. "For one thing, the firefighters are almost 10 years older, on average, than they were 15 years ago. When you realize that their labor-intensive emergency duties have not changed much, you can imagine their increased potential for on-the-job injuries and longer rehab times."

In October, Beaton rode along with each of the Everett Fire Department's four shifts to inform his upcoming resiliency training for Everett firefighters and paramedics. In addition to an aging workforce, Beaton found that the annual call volume for the department has dramatically increased. In 1991, they had 31 line personnel and 9,146 calls per year. As of 2009, the department had added only two more staff, for a total of 33 line personnel, while calls had nearly doubled to 18,000 per year.

Not everything had changed, however. Beaton said that sleep deprivation and sleep debt continue to be major issues among firefighters and paramedics, just as they were 15 years ago. But the problems have escalated. "Instead of just complaints about their poor quality sleep, many of them have now developed sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea," Beaton reported. To address this, he will incorporate fatigue management in his training, using this video.

Another part of the training will address what is known, and unknown, about the risks of cancer in the fire service. Direct exposure to carcinogens at fires and hazmat incidents has been linked to higher rates of cancer among firefighters. In reconnecting with the Everett Fire Department, Beaton learned that a number of firefighters and paramedics have been diagnosed and treated for various forms of cancer.

Beaton's ride-alongs revealed that public health must not forget the health needs of its first-line responders. His resiliency training will take place December 27–30, co-facilitated with Everett Paramedic, Roger Vares, Paramedic and Fire Service Instructor I & II. The training is co-sponsored by the Everett Fire Department and the IAFF Local 46 in collaboration with NWCPHP and the UW School of Nursing.

Beaton also recently conducted resiliency trainings at a national level for the Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Beaton retired on June 30, 2011, but will continue to be involved with NWCPHP's initiatives.

November 30, 2011

By Missie Thurston

When tropical storm Irene hit the small northeastern state of Vermont, most people didn't know who Sarah Waterman was, but within the next 48 hours this would change. Waterman, a 27 year-old with a Master of Public Administration degree, would build tools to help thousands of Vermonters cope with the statewide disaster.

Tropical storm Irene devastated much of Vermont. The rural, mountainous state was overwhelmed with rain. Power was out, homes were evacuated, and roads were washed away. As the extent of the damage became clear, Waterman and her colleagues created www.vtresponse.com. It was a place for people to send requests for help or to volunteer services following the emergency.

Waterman and her colleagues also started a Twitter account, @vtresponse, which posted item after item about ways to help. Soon Waterman and her colleagues had information streaming in from people throughout the state. She had become a trusted, and needed, resource.

As a native of Vermont, I closely followed what was happening to my home state. As I did so, I was struck by the power of social media. I teach public health professionals about many aspects of communication, and in the past few years social media has been a popular topic. I have taught public health professionals how various social media tools could be used, using my Twitter account (@missiethurston) and other social media accounts (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn) to demonstrate how each modality works.

I knew that this training was important because public health has to know about communication tools to develop strategies that use the tools effectively, but I reasoned that it would be best for each public health program to individually assess social media and determine if it was strategically important to that program. After all, public health has a broad realm of responsibility and tight resources. I knew that some programs (such as those designed to provide exercise programs to the elderly) didn't need social media.

But tropical storm Irene made me realize that I should have added a qualifier for public health emergency preparedness. I should have shown the absolute necessity for public health preparedness to understand and be ready to use social media.

It is public health's job to help provide resources and safety advice during emergencies. How do you do that when your population is without power and removed from their homes? The 2010 earthquake in Haiti proved that cell phones are essential communication tools during emergencies, but now smart phones are further changing information avenues. During tropical storm Irene, people were hungry for information and, although they were evacuated to large shelters and had no power, their smart phones functioned perfectly. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media venues were quickly disseminating critical, timely information.

In addition to being one of the only functioning areas of communication, social media venues were also a preferred method of communication because of their user-generated content. Emergency responders and news crews couldn't travel the state in these dangerous conditions, but users all over the state were uploading their own pictures and videos of what was happening. People were crowd-sourcing emergency information and public health should have been too.

Vermont needed the tools Waterman and her colleagues constructed, and that should be motivation enough for health departments to learn and use social media because not every community has a Sarah Waterman. But beyond the emergency, and the mitigation of death or illness, there are other long-lasting impacts from the use of these tools for the public and for public health.

As I followed the storm, I scrambled to monitor my family and friends. I joined or began following numerous news sources. One of those sources was the Vermont Flooding 2011 on Facebook. In hours, Vermont Flooding 2011 had 1,000 then 2,000 then 5,000 people who "liked" it. As of today, Vermont Flooding 2011 on Facebook  has 23,900 people who "like" it. The Vermont Department of Health's Facebook page has 460.

Imagine if the Department of Health had the staffing and expertise to make the health department's Facebook page a resource like Vermont Flooding 2011. And imagine if the Vermont Department of Health could now easily deliver important health messages to 23,900 people on Facebook.

I can now say with conviction that public health must learn and use social media effectively to adequately serve communities. For more information about my experience with tropical storm Irene and social media, please feel free to visit my blog at www.missiethurston.com/blog or tweet me a comment or question @missiethurston.

Slideshow: Click on a small image to see a larger version; click on the larger image to view fullscreen.

Hurricane Irene travels up the east coast.

Irene's path blanketed all of Vermont with heavy rain.

The top floor of a home sits where the river left it near Brattleboro,
Vermont. (Photo courtesy Luke Stafford)

Dover Road near Brattleboro, Vermont. (Photo courtesy Luke Stafford)

Water destroys Route 4, one of Vermont's major roadways.
(Unknown photo source)

Before and after Irene photos of Vermont's Route 4 with the riverbed next
to it. (Photo courtesy Google Maps)

The covered bridge in Quechee, Vermont which usually sits many feet
above the river. (Unknown photo source)

Route 12 north of Quechee, Vermont. (Unknown photo source)

Water overtakes Woodstock, Vermont. Notice the floating propane tank.
(Photo courtesy Kathleen Robbins)

Woodstock High School's athletic fields and garden. (Photo courtesy
Kathleen Robbins)

Woodstock High School's garden. (Photo courtesy Kathleen Robbins)

Water overtaking a farm in Tunbridge, Vermont. (Unknown photo source)