Public Health Outreach Forum: What Do We Know?

What characterizes a successful outreach project? What approaches work in different settings? How is outreach to public health professionals different from that to other health professionals? What are some of the barriers, and solutions, to reaching out from an academic environment to a community practice setting? How can the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and health science librarians nationally reach out to the public health community more effectively in the future? A forum to explore these and other questions was held at NLM on April 4-5, 2001. The agenda appears below with links to slide presentations. The program focused on NLM-funded outreach directed to public health professionals. More than 20 projects form the core of this effort. Background information about these projects can be found at: projects.html

A considerable amount of experience and information was accumulated from this work which covered 2-3 years.
Through focused panel sessions and discussions, participants hoped to distill that experience and information into knowledge, and perhaps even some wisdom, about what works and what is a good investment for future outreach. Papers from the Forum appear in a Special Report section of the October 2001 issue of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (Volume 89, Number 4).

Information has been gathered on NLM-funded public health outreach projects. The committee planning the forum analyzed this information with the intent to learn, among other things, what these projects have in common and what are unusual or unique aspects. Panels were held on such topics as 1) assessing the information needs of public health professionals and research questions associated with attempting to do that, 2) based on assessed needs, determining objectives and evaluating the outcomes, 3) effective means of making national, state, and local information resources available (via websites, e.g.), and 4) partnerships between libraries and public health entities and project sustainability. Invited speakers from the public health community also addressed how this is viewed from the other side of the equation -- from the perspective of those who are the targets of this outreach -- and introduced actual applications of knowledge support to public health problems.

Representatives from the outreach projects participated in the forum, along with staff from each of the Regional Medical Libraries, several NLM staff, and representatives from many public health agencies and organizations. The members of the forum steering committee were: Neil Rambo, University of Washington, chair; Kris Markovich Alpi, Weill Medical College of Cornell University; Catherine Burroughs, University of Washington; Marj Cahn, National Library of Medicine; Jocelyn Rankin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Joan Zenan, University of Nevada-Reno.

Agenda

PUBLIC HEALTH OUTREACH FORUM
April 4-5, 2001
National Library of Medicine
Lister Hill Center Auditorium
Bethesda, Maryland

Questions for Panel 1 participants

PANEL 1 - Assessing Information Needs of the Public Health Workforce

1. What methods have been the most useful in identifying public health workforce information and (related) training needs?
2. What are the skills and behaviors we are expecting to affect through outreach? What baseline measures are needed to detect changes?
3. What do we know about information-related training needs in public health? How do we know this? How can this be used to improve the training delivered as part of outreach?
4. Can we identify elements of public health job functions or work environments that affect information needs? If so, can this be used to target outreach more effectively?

Questions for Panel 2 participants

PANEL 2 - Fulfilling Information Needs with National/State/Local Web Resources

1. How are librarians and information providers determining the kinds of web-based information needed by public health professionals? How effective are these methods? How is subsequent evaluation validating needs assessment?
2. To what degree is the duplication of content and links among project websites, and public health organizations, a concern? Could a national resource supplement the local and regional resources developed by individual projects?
3. How can we engage partnering public health professionals to participate in developing and maintaining directories of relevant web resources?
4. What kind of additional resources, or new areas, need to be developed and made available on the web?

Questions for Panel 3 participants

PANEL 3 - Identifying Outreach Objectives and Related Outcomes

1. What outcomes characterize a successful public health outreach project? To what extent can they be realistically measured? What baseline measures are needed?
2. What strategies or project characteristics seem to have a major impact on outreach outcomes? What approaches work in different settings?
3. How does what we know about outcomes and approaches help to determine objectives for public health outreach? Do outreach objectives for the public health workforce differ from those for other health professionals?
4. How can we work with partners and target communities to develop a shared vision of outreach objectives and outcomes?

Questions for Panel 4 participants

PANEL 4 - Strengthening Outreach Through Partnerships and Sustainability

1. Are some partnerships more effective in reaching the public health community than others? What are the effects of partnerships among different entities?
2. What are the benefits of partnerships? What are the pitfalls of partnerships? What strategies can increase the likelihood of successful partnerships?
3. How do you develop a partnership? How do you go beyond outreach to partnerships?
4. What strategies can be used to ensure sustainable outcomes? How do we define or measure sustainability? Can outcomes be sustained in the absence of a partnership?

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