Resources
Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP) is home to a number of grant- and contract-funded centers and projects. This support provides the foundation for our training, research, and evaluation activities designed for governmental state, local, and tribal public health in six Pacific Northwest states—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
Training
Northwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center (NWPERLC)
As one of fourteen Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NWPERLC provides core competency-based training to state, local, and tribal public health authorities, specialized training, education, exercise consultation and products.
Northwest Public Health Training Center (NWPHTC)
As one of 33 Public Health Training Centers, we receive funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for general workforce development activities to assess the learning needs of the public health workforce; provide accessible training, and work with organizations to meet other strategic planning, education, and resource needs
Northwest Public Health Leadership Institute (NWPHLI) focuses on the development of community leadership to improve public health. It builds on personal experiences and allows participants to develop skills that can be directly applied to their current work environment. The program is designed for the experienced public health (or related) professional who wants to increase his or her leadership abilities.
Northwest Public Health Management Certificate (PHMC) improves the management skills of individual public health managers in state, local, and tribal settings, which will then promote improved efficiency, effectiveness, and resource development for their agencies. Improved performance by public health agencies should result in improved public health services and outcomes for the agencies they serve.
National Healthy Homes Training Center (Healthy Housing) training is open to any public health worker who wishes to gain insight into how housing and health are related. It is also recommended for housing inspectors, building officials, energy and weatherization contractors or anyone who has need to visit homes in their work.
Research
Northwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center (NWPERRC) intends to determine the best ways to use communication technology to reach essential and vulnerable audiences with critical emergency information. Research partnerships include local and state public health departments, along with tribal and community-based organizations serving a diverse set of communities. Each research project has partners related to its specific area of focus.
Harborview Advanced Automatic Collision Notification (AACN) is a grant project to explore the use of systems to identify crash occupants who are uninjured or have minor injuries, in order to inform the emergency response.
Climate Change and Human Health is a three-year grant project to learn more about the effects of climate change. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers will evaluate the impact of climate change on human health in the Pacific Northwest, work with local communities to study health risks that will likely occur in the next 35 years, and uncover how communities might mitigate those risks.
Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) researchers are studying the cultural and linguistic barriers to bystander CPR faced by Chinese and Latino LEP populations. Findings will be used to modify 9-1-1 assisted instructions and develop culturally appropriate CPR training strategies, so that LEP populations can be more prepared to respond to cardiac emergencies.
Washington Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) is a partnership with local Public Health Officials to identify and address practice-based research questions that affect public health services in Washington State.
Public Health Systems Research: Disease Reporting, Investigation, and Response investigates how differences in the structure, resources, and procedures of public health systems affect disease detection and response. By studying these differences, researchers will seek to answer, “Which public health measures (evidence) correlate most highly with performance in state public health systems?”
Pfizer Scholar Award: Local Public Health Agency Characteristics and their relationship to Disparities: The Nature of the Workforce & their Activities seeks to study and explores the nature of the public health workforce mix and the set of local public health agencies activities that are most strongly associated with changes in disparities in mortality.
Evaluation
Kitsap County Health District contracted with NWCPHP to conduct a performance evaluation of the Kitsap County Health District (KCHD) Local Health Officer (LHO) and to create evaluation instruments that can be used in future years to evaluate the KC LHO and potentially other Washington State LHOs.
Tribal Emergency Preparedness Conference planners led by Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board contracted the NWCPHP evaluation team to conduct an outcome evaluation of the overall conference.
Washington State Department of Health DOH (WADOH) contracted NWCPHP to conduct an evaluation of the nine Multistate Learning Collaborative (MLC-3) projects implemented by Washington Local Health Jurisdictions (LHJs) in 2010. Each LHJ conducted a quality improvement (QI) project in one of three areas: Chronic Disease Prevention/Physical Activity; Prenatal Care, and Immunizations. The evaluation was designed to gather information on the experiences of the nine LHJs who participated in the MLC-3 grant projects.
Washington State Department of Health (WADOH) received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase the performance management capacity of public health departments. The Strengthen Public Health Infrastructure for Improved Health Outcomes grant provides five years of funding to support innovative changes to improve the effective and efficient delivery of public health services in Washington State. NWCPHP is contracted by the Washington State Department of Health to assess the baseline knowledge, skills, and abilities at each of the three CFE through a web survey and short in-person interviews and conduct follow-up evaluation during the five year project period.
Washington State Department of Health contracted NWCPHP to evaluate Washington State Standards Review (WA Review) and the DOH National Public Health Accreditation Board Beta Test (PHAB Beta Test). NWCPHP evaluated the time spent, strategies employed, tools used, and barriers encountered by WADOH staff.
Washington State Department of Health requested NWCPHP’s evaluation team to develop a return on investment (ROI) training for state and local public health professionals to improve their evaluations of public health programs.
Outreach and Publications
Northwest Public Health Journal is a peer-reviewed journal of the University of Washington School of Public Health, published by NWCPHP twice a year. It is a vehicle for the exchange of information, ideas, and innovations among members of the public health practice and academic communities throughout Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
Other Initiatives and Projects
Public Health Seattle and King County Advanced Practice Center (APC) to support the development of a toolkit for local health departments (LHDs) to develop effective, manageable, and sustainable medication dispensing capabilities that address the CDC requirement that communities enhance their medication dispensing capabilities.
Multnomah Advanced Practice Center (APC) contracted with the NWCPHP to develop an online Just in Time Training module as part of the Advanced Practice Center project’s national mission to promote innovative and practical solutions that enhance the capabilities of all local health departments and the public health systems they prepare for, respond to and recover from public health emergencies.
Collaborative Drug Therapy Agreement (CDTA) for Influenza Antivirals in Washington State, a team from the Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA), NWCPHP, and Public Health - Seattle & King County developed a template Collaborative Drug Therapy Agreement (CDTA) for Influenza Antiviral Medications under a contract with WA State DOH, supported via CDC pandemic preparedness funds.
Montana Accreditation Project to provide technical assistance in developing a specific work plan for the three-year period that builds on existing public health system improvement activities and the activities outlined in MT's year 1 MLC grant application; consultation on implementation of quality improvement activities in public health; on preparing for state and local participation in the voluntary national accreditation program; and on involving the Public Health System Improvement Task Force in MLC activities.
UW School of Public Health Business Continuity Tabletop Exercise was facilitated by NWCPHP faculty to assess the completeness of the SPH Emergency Preparedness - Business Continuity Plan.. Exercise participants consisted of SPH administrators, SPH Dean's Office, department chairs, and selected other UW units and external agencies.
Previous Centers and Projects
The Center for Excellence in Public Health Informatics works to advance the study and practice of public health informatics through collaborative efforts among academic public health experts, local and/or state public health departments, developing Regional Health Information Organizations, and other health and informatics professionals. The informatics group at NWCPHP offers training and resources.
In 2006, NWCPHP partnered with the Region X Office of the Regional Health Administrator (ORHA) on a regional public health preparedness project.
NWCPHP hosted the Regional Academic Environmental Public Health Center, which assisted local, state, and tribal health units in providing effective, state-of-the-art environmental public health programs.
Faculty from NWCPHP was also involved in improving laboratory practice in the region through participation in the CDC-funded Clinical Laboratory Initiative. Visit the new home of the Clinical Laboratory Initiative at the Foundation for Health Care Quality.
NWCPHP was awarded funding to support the Bioterrorism Curriculum Development Program. Initial funding supported the development of new interdisciplinary bioterrorism/emergency preparedness courses that attracted students from nursing, public health, pharmacy and medicine, practicum rotations, and establishment of a Graduate Certificate Program in Emergency Preparedness and Response for Academic Health Center students at the University of Washington. An extension of this project focuses on developing and adapting this multidisciplinary curriculum in bioterrorism and public health emergency preparedness to train pharmacy and other students at the University of Washington Academic Health Center, and the Washington State University College of Pharmacy.
