president and executive director’s message
During APHL’s Annual Conference a few weeks ago, we
invited you to reflect on the following questions—
• What is the unique way that you will affect the future
of public health?
• What is the blog post only you can write?
• What is the working group that needs your experience?
• What is the country that calls to you to volunteer?
• Where does your passion lie in public health?
T
he world out there says new is always better. The push for new
technology in the media and business is relentless, and we can pick up
that artificial urgency. In consumer technology, that push is based on a
perception of unlimited resources—the idea is to get you to spend money and
buy the newest gadget.
The public health environment is utterly and profoundly different. Limited
resources. Baked-in redundancies. We test the test and compare its results to
other results, then test those again. We want a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C, and
some ideas in our back pocket in case we need a Plan D.
But public health laboratory practice certainly is changing. Genomics,
proteinomics and bioinformatics are re-defining fundamental approaches to
detection and response to infectious disease threats. And what matters just
as much as the information being communicated is that the public health
laboratory is essential to communicating it. That wasn’t the case even a few
years ago. Now we are better established as a key part of the process and many
reporters turn to us. Now, it’s time to get more of the public to turn to us.
Another reflection of this shift is the new generation of laboratorians. It is
essential to show them that the public health laboratory is a great place to
become not only leaders in science, but innovators in science. We should
continue to cultivate their talent from within our organizations and through
community outreach; to encourage bold ideas with which to interest and
motivate them on their terms, which can be radically different from our
norms. We must recognize that they have the potential to revolutionize
public health and advocate for reliable resources to make that transformation
happen. Furthermore, we need to reach out to help shape science curricula so
that graduates’ knowledge and skills can meet the needs of the laboratories.
There have been so many challenges and success stories over the years.
Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of Louisiana’s public health laboratory
infrastructure and other states that came to their aid. A 2012 outbreak of
Hepatitis C in a New Hampshire hospital caused by an infected cardiac
catheter technician who was diverting drugs intended for patients for self-use.
Lead contaminated drinking water in Flint, MI because officials failed to use
corrosion inhibitors. Measles outbreaks at Disney theme parks. Multistate
foodborne outbreaks too numerous to mention. In all of these circumstances,
state and local public health laboratories–along with our environmental,
agricultural, veterinary and food safety laboratories–were on the front lines
doing whatever was necessary to respond to these crises.
The answer isn’t that every lab has to do everything, rather we’ll find the
answers when we apply our expert analysis and decision-making skills, and
our growing networking and partnering skills. For instance, in some regions,
neighboring states are helping each other and saving money by cultivating
different specialties that each neighbor can tap. And this is our vision for
Public Health 3.0: an idea of inclusiveness and being open to others’ vision.
Pooling resources to not only help our members deal with crises, but to also
usher in more efficient best practices for laboratory safety and professional
development.
There’s a hunger for information about public health issues and people often
turn to social media for it. We’ve all seen how social media blows up before we
even detect a threat. What if we combined social media data with the Flu Near
You tracker, or pharmacy runs on cold medicine and absenteeism at schools?
Then we could see what’s happening before an outbreak happens—we’d have
a new paradigm.
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Summer 2016 LAB MATTERS
3