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The Campaign for Public Health Foundation Announces its 5th-Annual Unsung Heroes of Public Health Award Winners

            Public Awards Reception at 4:30 pm on January 27, 2015

         The Gold Room (#2168) of the Rayburn House Office Building

                                    Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

     Washington, DC --- [January 13, 2015] ----Today the Campaign for Public Health Foundation announced the winners of our 5th annual Unsung Heroes of Public Health Awards. The Foundation's awards recognize leaders whose exemplary efforts to save lives and improve health deserve national recognition.

     Preventing disease is too often a job that goes unrecognized. For the past 5 years, elected officials, friends, and coworkers have nominated extraordinary leaders working in disease control and prevention. We are excited to applaud those working behind the scenes to make our lives measurably safer and healthier. As we commend this year's awardees, we also reflect on the tens of thousands public health champions in our communities who are vital to our health, many of whom remain largely invisible. This year, with approximately 50,000 of our public health colleagues no longer on the job due to local budget cuts and federal reductions, these awards are more important than ever.

The Awardees 

Rock in the Pond Award

     Michael Wahl, MD, FACEP, FACMT, the Medical Director of the Illinois Poison Center in Chicago, Illinois has won the CPH Foundation's 2014 Rock in the Pond Award. This award recognizes an individual for outstanding work on a community-based or state-wide public health effort that produced significant positive health outcomes. In nominating Dr. Wahl, Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL 6th District), wrote,

"Dr. Wahl exemplifies the spirit of the award through his work focused on public health. He has served as the Medical Director of the Illinois Poison Center - the oldest poison center in the United States - since 1998. While working in this capacity, he has set up the Poison Center Hotline that treats over 90 percent of calls reporting accidental poisoning, helping to reduce the need for doctor visits and emergency care, and saving over $52 million in healthcare costs each year. He has also set up similar hotlines for H1N1, MERS, and now Ebola, which provide important public health information during times of infectious disease outbreaks."

     A seconding letter from the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council demonstrated the quality of Dr. Wahl's work, the impact of his programs, and the significance of his broad leadership within the public health community. We are pleased and honored to recognize Dr. Michael Wahl for his outstanding work to improve the lives and health of Americans in Illinois -- work that has quite literally been felt across the nation.

Wavemaker Award

     For the first time, The Foundation's 2014 Wavemaker Award recognizes two visionaries whose work on a large-scale multi-state, regional, national or international public health program has successfully impacted a major public health challenge. This year's winners were co-nominated.

     Robert L. Burhans, former Director of Health Emergency Preparedness at the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), and Catherine C. Slemp, MD, MPH, former State Health Officer and Emergency Preparedness Director for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health were selected as recipients of this award for their significant contribution to the development of the National Health Security Preparedness Index. The NHSPI is the first successful endeavor that marshaled stakeholders to collaborate and design a single measurement instrument that aims to provide accurate and relevant information to achieve a higher level of health security preparedness.

     With 34 years of public health experience, Mr. Robert L. Burhans led the state's Office of Health Emergency Preparedness, which coordinated NYSDOH's comprehensive all-hazards preparedness and response activities. He was a member of the Department's Executive staff, the State's Homeland Security Executive Committee, and was NYSDOH's representative to the State's Disaster Preparedness Commission. In nominating Mr. Burhans, Mr. Gerrit Bakker, Senior Director of Public Health Preparedness at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), wrote,

"Throughout his career in public health preparedness, Mr. Burhans has advocated for the need for a comprehensive tool to help the nation measure its level of health security preparedness. Unlike other areas of public health, there has been no comprehensive, validated measure of our nation's ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Mr. Burhans believed the NHSPI would fill that gap, and devoted countless volunteer hours over the last three years on this project."

     In retirement, Mr. Burhans continues to be recognized and relied upon as an expert in the field of public health preparedness and response. He is a consummate career public health servant whose work and dedication to mission are second to none.

     Dr. Catherine C. Slemp served as West Virginia's State Health Officer with the WV Bureau of Public Health from 2002-2011. There she oversaw immunization programs, outbreak and disease control programs, emergency preparedness and response efforts, and agency quality improvement activities. Concurrently, she served as the state's Emergency Preparedness Director, overseeing preparedness programs, managing multi-million dollar grants, and leading public health agency responses, including the state's response to the 2009 influenza pandemic. In nominating Dr. Slemp, Mr. Bakker wrote,

"For over two years, she has served as Chair of the NHSPI project's Stakeholder Communication Workgroup. Dr. Slemp devoted countless hours of her personal time to lead the project's ongoing efforts to engage public health and healthcare preparedness practitioners. She has guided the creation of all the NHSPI communication tools, which helped state public health agencies to understand and use the Index."

     Dr. Slemp is highly regarded as a public health preparedness and response expert who is both compassionate as well as empathetic in her thoughts and actions. She is a remarkable public health leader, and role model to the community. We are pleased to honor Mr. Burhans and Dr. Slemp for their outstanding work to improve the health security of Americans nationwide.

  Excellence in Media Award

     In years past, the CPH Foundation has presented our Excellence in Media award to distinguished journalists form the LA Times, USA Today and to a local journalist from Cincinnati. All of these winners have met the Foundation's critical criteria for this award; that the piece being recognized should have wide reach and be shown to have impacted a public health issue directly.

     This year, the selection committee felt the test of major reach and impact for a story was not strongly documented in the submissions received and an overall winner was not announced in this category. However, we are pleased this year to present an Honorable Mention to Donna A. Patterson, Ph.D for her coverage of the Ebola outbreak on The Huffington Post.

     Dr. Donna A. Patterson is an assistant professor in Africana Studies at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She specializes in the history of medicine, pharmaceuticals, and drugs in Africa and is currently working on her forthcoming book on transnational drug consumption, distribution and control. Among her several Huffington Post blogs, her two most important pieces, "Better Public Education Programs Could Help Stop the Spread of Ebola" and "Blood, Pills, and Black Market" circulated new information about the global Ebola epidemic. She has published in the Journal for Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved and the Journal of Women's History.

For more information, please contact:

Karl B. Moeller

[phone] 

[email protected]

For more information about the Campaign for Public Health Foundation, visit: www.CPHFoundation.org

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Earlier this week, CPHF wrote in support of emergency funds targeting the Ebola response both here at home and overseas.

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The Ebola Outbreak: Are Republicans or Democrats to Blame?

Ebola’s global spread is pulling back the curtain and exposing Washington’s cuts to disease prevention funding over the past several years. These cuts went beyond what was prudent or safe, and now some midterm campaigns are working to make political hay out of the global Ebola crisis. But who is really to blame for these cuts to our national defense?

In April, our blog detailed how former Labor HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to a member of Congress’ concerns about public health cuts during a Labor-HHS subcommittee hearing. She said, “[Prevention] services will go on, we just don’t need the money through CDC.”   Representative Roybal-Allard (D-CA) was worried - before this outbreak - that the Administration requested a full $1billion less for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 than they did in 2010.

For an agency whose core budget is about $6.5 billion, a billion dollar cut, in such a short time-frame, is massive. By low-balling the CDC budget (and that of NIH and HRSA, too) and for focusing so exclusively on the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, the Administration and many Democrats in Congress clearly bare some responsibility for cuts to prevention.

But those on the other side of the political divide who might deride our poor public health preparedness have their own albatross to contend with. Under the banner of cutting wasteful programs, Republicans embraced these same deep cuts to the CDC - and wanted more. They went a step farther by denouncing the Affordable Care Act's Prevention and Public Health fund. Many Republicans are on record, some voting more than 40 times, to eradicate this major source of funding for the CDC. Had conservative efforts to repeal these prevention funds succeeded, the CDC’s budget would have plummeted by almost another $1 billion overnight. That massive 15% cut to an agency already on the ropes would have been a disaster – particularly considering that states have cut an additional 50,000 health department jobs nationwide.

The American public was largely oblivious to these funding cuts to "discretionary" prevention programs. On a recent flight to speak at a public health conference, the woman sitting next to me said something that stuck with me and sheds light on the reason why. While talking about our jobs, I waxed poetic about the amazing world of disease control and prevention. She then said; “Your organization must have a great network of people helping you advance all these critical issues!”

I smiled, and gave this analogy:

It is possible that this flight was rushed through its safety check, that the airline cut back maintenance staff to save money, and that the wing is falling off right now. Still, we are flying because we trust a system is there to prevent that from happening. Really, we have no idea if the airline is cutting costs, if they fired the ground crew last week, or if the person at the helm just flew from China and is utterly exhausted. More to your point - we have never sent a letter to Congress asking them to fully fund air safety even though we both fly regularly and our lives depend on this system we think is in place.

Americans simply expect us to be ready for Ebola-type threats. Yet, Washington let us lose our edge – here at home and overseas. Politicians should stop looking for whom to blame and detail a vision for the future.

Like no other time in recent history, the value of a strong national public health system is in the news. It is clear: the pilot is tired, the ground crew was cut and the systems we depend on are not in good shape.

A true leader will not point fingers, but will call on us to do better. Not just for the sake of fighting this crisis (or the next), but for the long-term health and safety of the nation. Congress, the Administration, and candidates for office should denounce any additional cuts to disease prevention and public health programs. Policymakers should work to rebuild the critical disease control  systems this nation needs today and in the future. It is time to focus, in a bipartisan manner, on doubling prevention budgets - just as we did for the NIH several years ago.

Dr. Tom Frieden of the CDC.

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A member of The CPH Foundation, Scientific Technologies Corporation, just published a corporate timeline showing their company's 25-plus year history in public health.

A print-friendly copy of the publication can be found here.

Enjoy!

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Senate HELP Committee Staff Tour CDC

By Alexandra Menardy, CPH Foundation Intern and MPH Health Policy Candidate at GW Milken Institute SPH 

All public health graduate students learn about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s role in public health. Still, most of us think infectious disease is the agency’s sole focus. I now realize how mistaken that idea is, after joining the CPH Foundation and a bipartisan delegation of U.S. Senate HELP Committee staffers on an educational tour of the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta. 

Over the course of two days, I helped the CPH Foundation lead a tour group through a series of meetings and site visits; where we learned how the agency lives up to its motto of “24/7: Saving Lives. Protecting People.” During a panel discussion, representatives from the New York Department of Health and CDC leadership discussed the agency’s partnerships with state and local governments. The CDC distributes over 60% of its budget to help these entities address a wide array of public health challenges. The agency also works to address chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease- providing scientific expertise to regional public health laboratories and working directly with local experts on the ground.

Tour participants engaged in a panel discussion on chronic disease with senior CDC leadership and the NY Department of Health.

CDC’s Chamblee and Roybal campuses are home to globally renowned, “gold standard” environmental health research facilities, the emergency response operations center, occupational safety laboratories, and divisions dedicated to improving laboratory science standards. During our tour of the Tobacco Laboratory, a world leader in tobacco research, we discussed the agency’s unique work in the field. The CDC is the only laboratory that measures more than 100 addictive and toxic substances in tobacco products and smoke; including the highly-addictive, free-nicotine constituent. The agency goes to remarkable lengths to keep pace with ever-changing tobacco products, analyzing more than 10,000 specimens each year. CDC science also supports of the FDA’s efforts to monitor the behavioral and health impacts. This laboratory is often referred to as the “world’s reference lab”for toxic substances. Judging by the state-of-the-art technology, CDC’s work is true to its reputation. 

Upon entering the CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory, tour participants wore shoe covers to maintain the sterile facility and safety. 

Another highlight of our tour was a discussion with the CDC’s Injury Center on the recent U.S. prescription drug overdose epidemic. I was nominally aware of PDO as an emerging issue, but was stunned to learn that opioid-related overdose death rates have been rising steadily. From 1999 to 2010 alone, there was a 102% increase. The CDC is not a regulatory agency, but they are working to address this issue by implementing their three pillars for prevention: improving the data quality and tracking trends on a national level, collaborating with states to strengthen their ability to address this issue, and supplying healthcare providers with the proper resources to improve patient safety. The agency’s efforts have already drastically improved healthcare standards through new prescribing guidelines in several states. The CDC expects to implement more drug monitoring programs, facilitate better access to substance abuse treatment, and ensure greater health care provider accountability. 

Tour participants were joined by CPH Foundation partner organizations, sponsors, and senior CDC staff for dinner. Katherine Simeon (Sen. Orrin Hatch’s staff) speaks with CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat (foreground). Natalie Burkhalter (Sen. Rand Paul's Staff) on left. 

A culminating point in the visit occurred when CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, provided a glimpse into a typical week at the CDC, focusing on the agency’s remarkable work in infectious disease prevention and surveillance. Dr. Frieden discussed efforts to address MERS, ebola, TB, chikungunya virus and the Million Hearts Initiative. Another key issue covered was the threat of antibiotic resistance. Awareness of antibiotic resistance is on the rise and the severity of this issue is alarming. AR in the United States kills at least 23,000 people every year, and ultimately puts modern medicine at risk. The CDC’s Detect and Protect FY15 Proposal seeks to address this issue. The proposal requests $30 million/year for 5 years to speed-up outbreak detection through support of regional labs and improve infection prevention and antibiotic prescribing. By doing so, the CDC’s AR Initiative could achieve 25-50% reductions in many harmful infections. 

CPH Foundation Executive Director, Karl Moeller, thanks tour sponsors during a meeting with CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden.

A final highlight of the tour was the insightful panel discussion with CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers and others. Our group was given a glimpse of a "day in the life of a disease detective”. It’s evident the agency’s infectious disease research and field work truly makes a difference worldwide. One interesting account was from EIS Officer Rachel Smith who led a research team during 2012 U.S. fungal meningitis outbreak. The CDC’s collaboration with and training of state health departments’ staff helped minimize what could have been a national outbreak. 

As a public health graduate student, experiencing first-hand the CDC’s tireless efforts to ensure our nation’s health and safety has provided me with inspiring insights into the hard work of the often under-appreciated staff at this amazing agency. Helping in the CPH Foundation’s efforts to educate policy makers about the agency’s expansive work was an excellent opportunity. The CDC is not only a leader in widely-known prevention efforts, but also is a pioneer in public health innovation.

To see more of our latest CDC tour, view photos here.  

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Sebelius to Congress: CDC Doesn't Need Funding

This post is an excerpt from our April Newsletter: click here to read more CPH Foundation News. 

When CDC leaders are not invited to update Congress on the health of the agency in detail, others who may not be as well informed about the state of the CDC are left to deliver the message. That point was made clear on March 13, when Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appeared before Congress to talk about the more than 28 agencies and 11 operating divisions under her direction within the Department of Health and Human Services. 

In the linked video here, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard asks one of the few questions about the CDC and its budget.  

                                                 CDC Clip: LHHS Subcommittee Hearing

Roybal-Allard questioned the secretary about the Obama administration's proposed cuts to the CDC, reminding the secretary that the president had requested $7.6 billion for the agency in 2010, (a full billion dollars more than his 2015 request before accounting for inflation). Roybal-Allard noted that this 14 percent drop in funds requested for the CDC was "stunning" and lowered the agency's budget authority to 2003 levels.   

  In her line of questioning, Congresswoman Roybal-Allard correctly noted that these cuts include the oft-praised Prevention Fund, mandatory funding provided under the Affordable Care Act that were meant to supplement prevention budgets, not supplant the agency's core programs.    

  Secretary Sebelius' stated (around 02:05:18 in the video) that the Prevention and Public Health Fund is not supplanting the CDC's budget but is "enhancing" the agency. She states,

  "I would finally say that you are absolutely right, that the Prevention Fund was to not supplant old efforts but to enhance prevention efforts. I'm pleased to tell you that given Congress' activity in 2014, those effort will be dedicated to prevention efforts, not used to backfill programs and I think we would see that going forward in 2015. We have again not suggested that the Prevention Fund be used supplant CDC's Funding."

These comments fly in the face of the truth. Our updated funding chart shows the drop in support for the agency while graphically representing how the Prevention and Public Health Fund is not actually doing "more" for the CDC as advertised -- but has instead been used to replace or "supplant" cuts to the agency's budget. 

  Also shown is the fact that only twice in the past 10 years has a president requested an increase in the CDC's budget. One of those instances came on the heals of sequestration. For his part, President Obama has, in 4 of his last 6 requests, asked for LESS funding for the CDC than Congress appropriated the prior year. 

     When pushed by Roybal-Allard to explain the cuts to so many areas of the CDC, Sebelius told Congress, "[Prevention] services will go on, we just don't need the money through CDC." (See 01:29:35 in the video.)

  Another View

In 2003, 2006 and again in 2007, then-director, Dr. Julie Gerberding wrote Congress that, in her professional judgment, Appropriators should raise the CDC budget to $15 billion to meet the true needs of the agency.   

  By contrast, the Obama administration seems to imply, at the hearing on March 13, that having greater insurance coverage under the ACA for hospital-based clinical diagnostic services (such as breast cancer screenings and colonoscopies) and by providing coverage for childhood vaccinations through insurance companies, massive cuts to community prevention work led by the CDC can be justified.  

  Champions for public health and prevention should listen to the March 15 testimony and ponder next steps. Perhaps it is time to agree that the ACA's Prevention and Public Health Fund -- despite the best of intentions -- has muddied the water so much that even the secretary mistakenly believes the CDC's budget is on the rise. The Prevention Fund has undoubtedly complicated the job of advocates fighting for a vibrant and cohesive national prevention infrastructure. 

  The CDC's budget was hard to explain before the ACA, and now it's nearly impossible. 

  The bottom line? All the great outcomes data in the world won't help strengthen public health investments if nobody really understands what the total investment is. 

  It is also time to give the CDC an opportunity to explain, independently and to both the House and Senate, how their critical prevention and public health efforts should move forward in this very new environment. The CDC, and experts in the public health field, should investigate how the CDC should be resourced to support a vibrant disease control and prevention infrastructure.

  Thank you, Congresswoman Roybal-Allard, for your work on behalf of public health and for asking the hard questions.

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Graph: Prevention & Public Health Fund eats @CDCgov budget. Feedback on our Tumblr site, full story tomorrow.

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From today's Appropriations hearing on the HHS Budget:

Check out Congresswoman Roybal-Allard as she asks HHS Sec. Sebelius about President Obama's proposed cuts to the CDC. See minute 2:01:22. 

Based on her answer, Secretary Sebelius seems to think that the Prevention and Public Health Fund is not supplanting the CDC's budget but is only being used to do new and innovated projects. That may be - but the cuts to CDC include the "new" prevention fund dollars. Since CDC has lost no staff and closed no buildings, there must be cuts to programs and the Fund must have supplanted those efforts.

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Antibiotic resistance in President's Budget

Expands Capacity to Detect, Prevent, and Respond to Infectious Diseases. The goal of the Global Health Security (GHS) Agenda is to reduce risks posed to the United States and global interests by emerging infectious diseases. The Budget increases CDC’s GHS activities by $45 million to train epidemiologists and expand public health emergency management capacity and Global Disease Detection Centers in up to 10 countries. The Budget also invests $30 million for the Advanced Molecular Detection Initiative to identify the sources of emerging infectious dis- eases faster, determine whether microbes are resistant to antibiotics, and study how microbes are moving through a population. The Budget more than doubles CDC funding to combat antibiotic resistance.

More here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/health.pdf

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From the President's budget sumary...

""Eliminates Duplicative Programs. The Budget makes room for new investments through a series of eliminations and reductions among programs, such as the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (PHHSBG). The PHHSBG is duplicative with existing activities that could be more effectivey implemented through targeted programs within CDC. In addition, the Budget proposes small, targeted reductions in select HHS direct health care programs (e.g., immunizations and cancer screenings) because these services are now financed and provided through expanded insurance coverage for those gaining new coverage." See the full text here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/health.pdf

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Great speeches about public health!!

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CPH FND Photos' photostream on Flickr.

Our 2013 Unsung Heroes had a wonderful day on Capitol Hill.

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Campaign for Public Health Foundation - Congressional Reception: 2013 Unsung Heroes of Public Health

Wed, January 08, 2014 (Eastern) The CPH Foundation will honor the winners of our 4th Annual "Unsung Heroes of Public Health Awards" at a congressional reception on Wednesday, January 8 from 4 to 6 pm in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Our

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Why you should attend our briefing at 9 am on Wednesday… 

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Public health friends in DC: we hope you can make it to this great Hill briefing on hepatitis C. Both Dr. Smith of the CDC and Dr. Falade are experts in the field and will be talking about how hepatitis C guidelines are helping to resolve a public health problem - and a future health care catastrophe. 

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CPH Foundation's TOUR OF CDC

Our Nov. 8 tour of the CDC with Congressman Tom Price (R-GA), Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), and LHHS Appropriations Committee member Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) was a great success. Also in attendance was the Deputy Chief of Staff to Congressman Kingston (R-GA). Mr. Kingston chairs the LHHS Appropriations subcommittee which funds the CDC.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, accompanied the bipartisan delegation and our executive director, Karl Moeller, through a series of meetings and site visits.

We are grateful to APHA, IDSA, NASTAD, Research!America and NACCHO - all nonprofit partner organizations that supported our efforts to make this trip happen.

More photos and details pending - stay tuned. 

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Help us spread the word: our nominations deadline moved to Public Health Thank You Day - November 25, 2013. More information is on our website. http://www.cphfoundation.org/annual_awards.html