Training
g for Translation:
The Future of Public Health Education
Donna J. Petersen, ScD, MHS
Dean USF College of Public Health
Dean,
Academy Health 2012
Training for Translation
• Current state of public health education
• Current state of policy-relevant research
i t ti
intentionally
ll d
designed
i
d ffor ttranslation
l ti and
d
application in the field
• Overcoming challenges to system
approaches to translational research in
health policy
• “Framing the Future: The Next 100 Years
of Education in Public Health”
US Education in Public Health
• 49 accredited schools, 84 accredited
programs, unknown
k
number
b off nonaccredited programs
• MPH,
MPH MSPH
MSPH, MHA
MHA, MHS
MHS, MS
MS, PhD
PhD, S
ScD,
D
DrPH
• Emphasis
E h i iin th
the professional
f
i
ld
degrees iis
practice (core disciplines, competencies, field
experience breadth)
experience,
• Emphasis in the academic degrees is
focused (read: single discipline) research
research,
depth
Doctor of Public Health
• DrPH intended to bridge focused research
and practice
• DrPH
D PH competencies
t
i iinclude
l d advocacy,
d
communication, critical analysis,
leadership
• Only 29 of the 49 schools offer the DrPH
(N = 126) and 5 of them grant nearly half
of all DrPH degrees (61 from UAB,
UAB
Berkeley, Columbia, JHU and Loma Linda)
US Education in Public Health
• Data reported by ASPH as of 2010
• Category is “health services
administration”
d i i t ti ” (i
(includes
l d h
health
lth policy,
li
health services research)
• 19.4% of all degrees were in HSA (1,742)
• 13.7%
13 7% of all doctoral degrees (133)
• Of these, 18% were DrPH degrees (24)
– 99 PhD, 10 ScD
“Health Policy Research”
When you google “health policy researchers”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mathematica
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Urban Institute
GWU Center for Health Policy Research
RAND
When you google “health policy research” the
first article that pops up is from New Zealand,
T
Translating
l ti R
Research
h Fi
Findings
di
iinto
t H
Health
lth
Policy 1996, Soc Sci Med 43(5):865-872
What Keeps us from Translating?
• Many faculty in public health schools/programs
not trained in public health
– Fewer have any practice-based experience
• Most of us trained in uni
uni-disciplinary
disciplinary
environments, whether in public health or
related fields
• Many of us trained to eschew the applied world
– Trained to maintain the “purity” of science
What Keeps us from Translating?
• More credit given for single investigator-led body
of research in a specific area
• Only scientific products valued
• Funding models favor novel research
• Time-to-tenure clock favors lab-based or
experimental studies
• By contrast, translational or applied research
typically involves multi-disciplinary teams of
academicians and practitioners and members of
the community
community, is community-based,
community based is evaluative
or qualitative and results in a variety of products
Translating to Translation?
• Need
N d a new model
d l off research,
h
– one that emphasizes the policy and societal
i li ti
implications
fi
firstt
– one that places research in its community context
at the outset
– one that engages stakeholders from the
beginning
• In articulating the problem or issue
y g a likely
y solution
• In identifying
• In determining if people and policy makers will accept
and pay for the proposed solution
• From
F
bench
b
h tto b
bedside
d id tto bl
block
k or vice
i versa
Training the Next Generation
• Must
ust stop ttraining
a
g tthem
e in ou
our o
own image!
age
– Change ourselves
– Change the way we train future scholars
• More programs emphasizing interdisciplinary
research
h
– Co-PI’s allowed
– Collaborative research rewarded
• More programs supporting applied research
(especially in the DrPH programs)
Training the Next Generation:
Examples from USF
• USF
US supports
suppo ts tea
teams
so
of g
graduate
aduate stude
students
ts
doing interdisciplinary research
• USF COPH encourages collaborative
collaborative,
community-engaged and applied research
– “scholarship
“ h l hi off practice”
i ”
• USF COPH strives for every scientific product
to have a companion piece depending on the
topic
p and the relevant audience
– Policy makers? Practitioners? The Public?
Interdisciplinary Research
• USF Interdisciplinary Graduate Student
Challenge Grants
– Exploring the Impact of Health Report Cards
– Towards Sustainability in Food Service: Food
Waste Reduction and Recycling for Energy
and Fertilizer Use at an Environmental
C
Charter
S
School
– Exploring Tampa’s Greener Future:
Estimating Air Pollution Emissions from
Transportation Networks in Two Urban
Planning Scenarios
Scholarship of Practice
• COPH tenure and promotion guidelines
revised to emphasize
– the “scholarship of practice”
– community-based participatory research
– engaged community service (beyond
university service)
– and collaborative research (don’t always have
o be PI o
or first
s au
author)
o)
to
Direct Dissemination
• Objective 1.3 By July 1, 2012, the USF COPH will
increase its engagement in promoting adoption of
evidence-based practices and policies by 20%
over baseline
– Indicator 1.3.1 USF COPH faculty will
demonstrate a 20% increase in practice activities
including but not limited to production of policy
papers,
p ,p
providing
g testimony
y to
briefs and white p
federal, state or community panels on actions for
improvement of the public’ s health and
di
dissemination
i ti off tool
t l kits
kit and
d other
th products
d t ffor
implementation/adoption at the community level
Direct Dissemination
• 2012
2012-2017
2017 being developed
– Continues same objective
– Adds
Add objective
bj ti tto iincrease grantt submissions
b i i
for community-based research and
community
it projects
j t
– Adds objective to re-examine competencies
for professional degree programs including
the DrPH and to develop a strategy for
building “community skills” toward greater
professional development
Framing the Future
• Realization that the world of public health
education is changing dramatically
• That
Th t ffollowing
ll i a 1915 model
d l makes
k littl
little
sense in the 21st century
• That the roles of public health
professionals are expanding and evolving
• That other professionals are interested in
being an overt part of public health
Framing the Future
• Explosive growth in undergraduate public
health degree programs
• Growth
G
th in
i doctoral
d t ld
degrees as th
the tterminal
i l
degree for most health professions
• Increasing interest in inter-professional
education
• Compelling need for more formal
workforce development
Framing the Future
• Timing of this session is fortuitous
• The group had not yet considered changes
needed in our doctoral and research degrees
• But the message of this session is consistent
with
ith where
h
the
th conversations
ti
h
have b
been
– Public health education must be far-more attuned
to the ways public health is practiced
– This would clearly entail better training of
researchers to seek opportunities to translate and
apply new knowledge, new interventions, new
y
analyses
The Future is Now?
• Need
eed to recognize
ecog e tthe
e imperative
pe at e to suppo
support,
t,
engage in and advance translational research
• Need to promote champions who can model
good behavior
• Need to recruit faculty who do this
• Need to g
give students every
y opportunity
pp
y to
think about and gain relevant experience in
research translation to policy makers
makers,
practitioners and the community
The Future is Now!
• The Task Force will issue
recommendations but implementation will
have to happen locally
• Enlightened educational programs can
produce graduates who go to lessenlightened
g
p
programs
g
and say
y “ yyes we
can!”