James Buehler, MD, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, Alonzo Plough, PhD, MPH, University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76107, Robert L. Seidman, PhD, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182, and Michelle C. Kegler, DrPH, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404/712-9957, mkegler@sph.emory.edu.

The 12 ASPH/CDC Academic Health Department (AHD) projects expand on the existing school of public health (SPH)/health department examples of partnership, with the goal of developing models of collaboration in the areas of service, teaching and research. A panel of academic and practice professionals will describe: 1) how the partnerships between the SPH and their state and/or local health departments prepare the workforce to address the front-line public health needs of the community and broaden students’ vision of professional employment opportunities; 2) how the expertise of the health department can offer innumerable opportunities for the SPH to investigate best practices, issues in health administration, policies, etc., and how SPH can improve the systems of the health departments’ service delivery through its analytic and evaluation capacities; and, 3) lessons learned and model examples of the individual AHD programs, including: · Creating paid internships at the health departments; · Engaging local health department staff in academic training; · Developing model curriculum; · Surveying graduates who are currently employed in the public health departments to determine how their MPH training prepared them for public health practice; · Conducting qualitative interviews with SPH faculty and health department staff to identify facilitators and barriers to effective collaboration; · Enhancing partnerships; · Planning faculty exchanges and forums addressing emerging issues; · Developing a new website for the SPH and Health Department to submit requests for internships, research assistance, etc.; and, · Offering “mini” grants for collaborative research projects.

Learning Objectives:

• a) Describe mechanisms that are used to establish academic-practice partnerships for the development of academic health departments.
• b) Identify barriers to establishing academic health departments.
• c) Examine strategies for sustaining academic health departments.

Keywords: Partnerships, Practice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.