Welcome to the 'Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Tools' project
Welcome to the 'Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Tools' project
Collection
Review
CIDRAP and the Pew Center on the States (PCS) launched this initiative in 2006 to foster pandemic influenza preparedness by sharing Promising Practices that can be adapted by public health stakeholders. The project was conceived in conjunction with, and initially funded by, The Pew Charitable Trusts. Ongoing sponsorship comes from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the national non-profit organization representing the 57 state and territorial public health agencies of the United States, US territories, and the District of Columbia.
Why this project?
Public health agencies, healthcare delivery systems, and those involved in other areas of public service have been working diligently on pandemic influenza response. There is a pressing need to identify and share promising practices across the United States to enhance response, save time and conserve resources.
Project partners began in July 2006 to identify, collect, and review Promising Practices in pandemic influenza. The 330-plus practices included here focus on six categories: Higher Education, H1N1 Response, Changing Models for Care, Communications, Community Disease Mitigation, and At-Risk Groups.
Initially created to enhance preparedness, the Promising Practices collection is now being updated frequently to include successful strategies and practices in response to some of the most difficult aspects of the novel H1N1 pandemic. State and local health departments, as well as higher education institutions, are sharing their successes in H1N1 response to support one another and conserve resources in the face of this major public health challenge.
The Promising Practices initiative was shaped by an Advisory Committee comprising state and local public health officials, as well as other experts in pandemic influenza preparedness. The committee also included leaders in ASTHO and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
The Advisory Committee helped to identify subject areas where the project might have the most impact and the most effective methods for collecting practices. CIDRAP staff developed three online questionnaires; a short form that could be completed electronically and e-mailed to CIDRAP; a toll-free phone line for people to call with information about promising practices; and a key-actor questionnaire for telephone and in-person interviews.
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Collection
Practice collection began in November 2006, chiefly via online forms on Survey Monkey. Links were posted on the CIDRAP Web site. A number of national public health associations assisted us by sending information or survey links to selected members working in pandemic influenza preparedness. We appreciate the assistance of associations and agencies that helped us send surveys to selected groups of their membership, including:
Practices were submitted through online questionnaires, key actor interviews and national associations.
Since the initial round of data collection, practices have been identified through a number of additional outreach activities. For instance, At-Risk Populations practices were added through a complementary ASTHO-CIDRAP project. In addition, a partnership with university representatives in the Big 10+2 (the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, or CIC members) yielded the initial collection of practices in the Higher Education category.
Practices addressing response are still being accepted. Click to submit practices.
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What these practices are
These practices include the most concrete, transferable tools available and are considered promising. You can download materials and adopt or adapt them as needed. Please credit the authoring agencies and check project descriptions for any other conditions of use.
What these practices are not
Inclusion of practices does not imply that CIDRAP or Advisory Committee members endorse the materials. In addition, project employees have not evaluated these projects for effectiveness.
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Review
Preparedness practices have been approved for inclusion through three methods: expert review by professionals in the field, review via professional organizations knowledgeable about cutting-edge public health practice, and review by CIDRAP staff members with topical expertise. Response practices are accepted at staff discretion, providing they fit the criteria below.
All practices must:
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Belong in at least one of the categories and focus areas
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Be considered promising
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Contain useful, tangible materials, strategies, or solutions
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Be transferable or relatively easy to adapt by other agencies/stakeholders
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Have relevance beyond the jurisdiction that created it
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Not have any obvious flaws that would prevent it from being effective
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Consent
CIDRAP collaborates with the individuals or agencies who develop the materials, to ensure the materials are either already publicly available or that the authors consent to making them publicly available, and to elicit updates.
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