Global, Public Health

CDC Director Frieden visits; we celebrate public health practice; I go to DC

October 14, 2009

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Dr. Frieden visits

We were so excited that the new CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, visited with us last week. I was thrilled that our School turned out over 400 people to listen and participate in a conversation with Dr. Frieden. See his bio for background about his local and global experience.

Frieden spoke about 4 priorities:

  1. Improving public health surveillance and epidemiology as key foundations for public health. He said it is not sufficient to collect data; data also must be disseminated in a way that is useful for decision making.
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    Support state and local public health action. He said that evidence-based practices don’t just appear. The work of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services is a good example of how evidence is reviewed and summarized.

  3. Strengthen global health work. He said that we all are connected by the air we breathe. Partnerships with other countries are important.
  4. Improve impact in affecting health policies. Our efforts should facilitate healthier choices.  He spoke about the challenge of altering the trajectory of this country around obesity, a topic about which he already has done so much as the NYC Commissioner of Health who banned trans fats in most NYC restaurants.

I am really encouraged by Dr. Frieden’s priorities and by his emphasis on closing the implementation gap—the chasm between what we know and what we do. He also stressed the importance of providing information that can be used for decision making and emphasized that we in public health should be prepared with evidence-based, well-messaged programs.

We celebrate public health: 10 years of the NCIPH

On Friday October 9, 2009, we celebrated 10 years of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) with a program that recognized the vision of President Emeritus Bill Friday in conceiving the mission of the NCIPH, Bill Roper, MD, MPH, in creating it, Richard House, Rachel Stevens and others in birthing it and Ed Baker, Jr., MD, MPH, MSc and his team in making it a 21st century powerhouse. I appreciate how important the NCIPH is to NC, particularly to our state and local health directors. Happy birthday and looking forward to many years of working together to improve public health in North Carolina.


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The views expressed in this blog are Barbara Rimer’s alone and do not represent the views and policies of The University of North Carolina or the Gillings School.