Current Projects
Wisconsin Public Health Practice-Based Research Network (WPHPBRN)
Wisconsin has received a $90,000 two-year award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to develop a public health practice-based research network with an initial focus on public health systems and services. "Practice-based" means that it will involve governmental health departments as they carry out their work. "Systems and services" research addresses the issues that underpin programming - things like how health departments are organized, staffed and funded. Wisconsin is one of seven new states receiving awards in 2009.
The Wisconsin PHPBRN holds great promise for bringing together researchers and state and local health department leaders from around the state to develop and then address research priorities. Click here for a fact sheet on this project and follow the project's progress by visiting the Wisconsin PHPBRN Portal on this website.
Wisconsin's Public Health Quality Initiative (WIQI) is preparing Wisconsin's health departments for national voluntary accreditation. WIQI began on May 1, 2008 and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) as part of its Lead States in Public Health Quality Improvement initiative, aimed at improving the nation's public health system by setting benchmarks to measure health department quality.
IWHI's partners in this effort are the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards. Project goals include:
1.Contribute to the development of an effective national voluntary accreditation program. (Wisconsin is one of 16 "lead states" as identified by RWJF.)
2.Engage Wisconsin communities in improving their health departments through adoption of assessment and quality improvement methods (We want the importance of public health quality to be understood by community leaders.)
3.Prepare Wisconsin's local and state health departments for national voluntary accreditation (The national voluntary accreditation program is being developed under the auspices of the Public Health Accreditation Board and is due for launch in 2011.)
If this project is successful, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and a group of at least 36 local health departments will have received basic training in the principles of quality improvement and completed a self-assessment that is aligned with the national accreditation movement by 2011. As of May 2009, 26 local partners are participating (see the map below) along with key persons in the Wisconsin Division of Public Health regional and central offices. Our partnership is committed to obtaining additional support for this initiative so that all Wisconsin health departments can complete voluntary accreditation by 2013.
Here are the 2009 project partners:
