A committee of 16 members will be convened to examine ways to strengthen the public health system. The committee would address a series of 3 topics and will produce 3 consensus reports, over a period of 2.5 years on potential strategies that could be implemented to improve the delivery of public health services with the goal of improving population health. The resulting consensus reports would provide an evidence-based analysis of the strategy and recommendations for implementation.

SOT 1

The committee will develop recommendations for state and local funding mechanisms or structures that would support the needs of public health departments after health care reform. Recommendations should be evidence based and implementable. In developing their recommendations the committee will:

• Review current funding structures for public health
• Assess whether funding levels for public health agencies correlate with health outcomes
• Review the impact of fluctuations in funding for public health
• Assess innovative policies and mechanisms for funding public health services and community-based interventions and suggest possible options for sustainable funding.

SOT 2

The committee will review how public health statutes and regulations prevent injury and disease and save lives; it will systematically discuss legal and regulatory authority; note past efforts to develop model public health legislation; and describe the implications of the changing social and policy context for public health laws and regulations.

SOT 3

The committee will review the role of score cards and other measures or assessments in summarizing the impact of the public health system, and how these can be used by policy makers and the community to hold public health agencies accountable and to inform advocacy for public health policies and practices.