Public Health Leadership Forum

The Department of Health and Human Services as the Nation’s Chief Health Strategist

In 2016, in preparation for a new Administration, the Public Health Leadership Forum (PHLF) convened a high-level group of public health and private health care policy makers who collaboratively developed a vision and a series of recommendations pertaining to the “Federal Public Health Enterprise.” The effort was co-chaired by Bobbie Berkowitz, Columbia University School of Nursing and Medical Center, and Jonathan Perlin, Hospital Corporation of America.

The overarching vision of the group is that everyone in America deserves to live in a healthy nation—and in healthy states, regions, cities, and neighborhoods. America needs a healthy population to be competitive and secure in the 21st century. As Chief Health Strategist for the nation, the Department of Health and Human Services should lead a national initiative that assures "America’s communities are places that provide every person with the opportunity to achieve optimal health and are served by a strong public health infrastructure.”

The final report, The Department of Health And Human Services as the Nation’s Chief Health Strategist: Transforming Public Health and Health Care to Create Healthy Communitie, recommends that the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) embrace the role of Chief Health Strategist for the nation in order to:

• Transform the health care and public health investments by the federal government into a Health Promoting System and adopt metrics that foster activities that support longer, higher quality life and reduce health inequities.
  
  
• Assure communities have the data, evidence, analytic capacity and flexibility they need to build healthy and resilient communities including supporting cross-sector collaborations at the federal, state, and local levels.
  
  
• Assure every community is served by a well-resourced public health department that is accredited and able to provide foundational capabilities and respond to unanticipated emergencies.
  
  (A grey scale version of the report is available for printing.)