Jonathon P. Leider

The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey: The First National Survey of State Health Agency Employees.

This article describes a nationally representative survey of central office employees at state health agencies to characterize key components of the public health workforce.

Thinking beyond the silos: emerging priorities in workforce development for state and local government public health agencies.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. This study focuses on the existing public health workforce, with the results aiming at informing the revisions public health academic programs and standards are experiencing nationally.

The Methods Behind PH WINS.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. This article outlines the conceptualization, development, and implementation of the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey, as well as considerations and limitations.

Convalescent transfusion for pandemic influenza: preparing blood banks for a new plasma product?

Due to the potential of a severe pandemic to limit efficacy or availability of medical countermeasures, some researchers have begun a search for new interventions that could complement the planned antiviral‐ and vaccine‐based response to an influenza pandemic. One such countermeasure—the transfusion of pandemic influenza‐specific antibodies from surviving patients to the clinically ill—is the focus of this commentary. Passive immunotherapy, which includes the use of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs), hyperimmune globulin, or convalescent plasma, had been used before the advent of antibiotics and has recently reentered the limelight due to the accelerating development of MoAb therapies against cancer, a number of microbes, allograft rejection, and a host of other conditions. After the plausible biologic mechanism and somewhat limited data supporting the efficacy for this modality against influenza are reviewed, safety and logistical concerns for utilization of this potential new product (fresh convalescent plasma against influenza [FCP‐Flu]) are discussed. FCP‐Flu could indeed prove useful in a response to a pandemic, but two necessary items must first be satisfied. Most importantly, more research should be conducted to establish FCP‐Flu efficacy against the current and other pandemic strains. Second, and also importantly, blood banks and donor centers should examine whether offering this new product would be feasible in a pandemic and begin planning before a more severe pandemic forces us to respond without adequate preparation.

The Problem With Estimating Public Health Spending.

Accurate information on how much the United States spends on public health is critical. These estimates affect planning efforts; reflect the value society places on the public health enterprise; and allows for the demonstration of cost-effectiveness of programs, policies, and services aimed at increasing population health. Yet, at present, there are a limited number of sources of systematic public health finance data. Each of these sources is collected in different ways, for different reasons, and so yields strikingly different results. This article aims to compare and contrast all 4 current national public health finance data sets, including data compiled by Trust for Americas Health, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Census, which underlie the oft-cited National Health Expenditure Account estimates of public health activity. In FY2008, ASTHO estimates that state health agencies spent

The future of urban health: needs, barriers, opportunities, and policy advancement at large urban health departments.

24 billion (

Perceived Impacts of Health Care Reform on Large Urban Health Departments

94 per capita on average, median

Changes in Public Health Workforce Composition: Proportion of Part-Time Workforce and Its Correlates, 2008-2013

79), while the Census estimated all state governmental agencies including state health agencies spent

Public health spending in 2008: on the challenge of integrating PHSSR data sets and the need for harmonization.

60 billion on public health (

The Double Disparity Facing Rural Local Health Departments.

200 per capita on average, median