Report Recommends UWM Move Forward With School Of Public Health

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) should move forward in developing an accredited school of public health and work with other interested stakeholders to secure the resources necessary to achieve this goal.

Those are key recommendations in a report submitted to City of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago and UW System President Kevin Reilly by a joint public health planning team. The report's findings will be presented to the UW Board of Regents at the December 7-8 meeting in Madison.

In October 2005, the Board of Regents asked UWM and the City of Milwaukee to conduct a feasibility study to examine public health initiatives at UW-Milwaukee, including a possible School of Public Health.  The planning team included representatives from UW-Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin System. The report was based on the public health planning team’s research, advice from three nationally known public health experts, and input from area citizens, health systems, agencies and community organizations.

While academic public health programs alone cannot solve complex urban health problems, an accredited school of public health can provide three essential elements of public health infrastructure, according to the report:  a highly qualified, diverse workforce; research that examines root causes of public health problems; and the identification of strategies to improve overall health outcomes.

According to the report, schools of public health can also help collect and examine data, refresh the existing workforce through continuing education, galvanize public concern and debate, and promote actions that will help achieve the vital goals of improving health and eliminating disparities.  The report cites Healthy People 2010, Wisconsin’s state health plan.

The report says that developing an accredited public health school would take six to eight years, and require significant resources, including an investment in new and current programs that can serve as building blocks for the school.

The report highlighted significant public health issues facing Milwaukee and Wisconsin including:

• Serious health disparities and complex public health problems in Milwaukee, the state’s urban center;
• The increasing need for a trained public health workforce in coming years as workers over age 50, who make up half the current workforce, retire;
• The lack of an accredited school of public health or public health training center in Wisconsin.  The report noted that none of the 36 accredited schools of public health and 14 public health training centers in the United States is located in Wisconsin.

The report also spotlighted existing strengths and partnerships that could provide a solid basis for building a UWM School of Public Health. These include:

• UWM’s substantial expertise in public health through its College of Health Sciences, College of Letters & Science, College of Nursing, and Helen Bader School of Social Welfare as well as through programs and collaborations involving other schools and colleges;
• The university’s existing research programs in public and environmental health through the National Institutes of Health Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center, the Center on Addiction and Behavioral Health Research, the Center on Age and Community, the Center for Urban Initiatives and Research and other centers as well as individual research projects within schools and colleges;
• Strong public support for establishing a school of public health in Milwaukee based on input from the diverse group of community and health organizations that took part in the planning process;
• Strong current public health partnerships and collaborations involving the city, UWM, other local academic institutions, health systems and community organizations. Examples cited include the Institute for Urban Health Partnerships, which operates three community-based nursing centers in Milwaukee; the Center for Urban Population Health, a collaboration involving UWM, UW-Madison and Aurora Health Care; a long-standing relationship with the Medical College of Wisconsin, which has research and teaching capacity in epidemiology and biostatistics; and collaborations with the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

The report specifically recommends:  

• A school of public health should be created at UW-Milwaukee.
• A formal Public Health Planning Council should be created to begin building the infrastructure of academic public health programs at UW-Milwaukee.
• Sufficient resources to support the expanded programming should be identified.  These resources are absolutely essential to developing the high-quality public health initiatives leading to an accredited school of public health, the report noted.
• UWM should work collaboratively with other institutions of higher education, health departments and community-based organizations, within the seven counties of metropolitan Milwaukee and across the state, on public health education and research.
• The City of Milwaukee Health Department should continue to develop its standing as an academic health department by strengthening its relationships with UWM’s academic public health programs, and, eventually, with a school of public health at UWM.
• The public health focus of existing graduate and undergraduate programs now in place at UW-Milwaukee should be strengthened to have an immediate impact on current public health workforce shortages in nursing, clinical lab sciences and environmental health.

City and university leaders expressed their support for the report’s recommendations.

UWM Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago: “I enthusiastically endorse and strongly support the findings of the Public Health Planning Committee's report to the Board of Regents. The consultants confirmed my view that UWM has a strong core of faculty in public health and related areas that can serve as the foundation for the formation of an accredited school of public health. I am committed to moving forward, along with the City of Milwaukee and our many community partners, on these recommendations to address existing health care disparities.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett :  “There is no question that a school of public health right here in Milwaukee will serve as a laboratory for the special needs of our city and will go a long way in helping us develop the workforce needed to address the complex issues we face. The findings in this report confirm what I’ve been saying for over a year – the health and well-being of the entire state of Wisconsin depend on the strength of the public health infrastructure in our urban centers – and I am committed to moving this process forward.”

President Kevin Reilly of the UW System: “As a public university, the UW System is attentive to the health and well-being of all Wisconsin citizens. We believe that a particular emphasis on addressing the health care needs of the state’s largest urban center can benefit all of Wisconsin. We are very supportive of the effective partnerships and productive collaborations that UW-Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee and other academic institutions, health systems and community organizations are forging to address these vital public health concerns."

For the complete report and an executive summary, see www.publichealth.uwm.edu.

###