Resource Guide for Public Health Professionals

Public health is a broad field with many different levels and approaches. There are numerous resources, both general and specific, available to public health professionals of all stripes that can aid in professional development and bring innovation into the field on all levels.

This resource guide links to 40 major sources including professional associations and research organizations, publications from both the scholarly and practice sides of the field, and the major conferences held around the United States every year.

Professional Associations and Research Organizations

• Centers for Disease Control is the government’s primary research and prevention agency, tasked with studying and advancing public health within the United States. Any student of public health will find the information provided by the CDC invaluable for their studies and future work.
• Public Health Solutions was originally founded as a research foundation and has expanded upon that to take a more active role in at-risk communities. The foundation still continues its cutting edge research in public health, but now also offers health services to local communities and provides non-profits with technical assistance in dealing with public health matters.
• Health Research Inc. is a non-profit organization that is affiliated with the New York State Department of Health, and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The role of HRI is to aid the NYSDH and RPCI in procuring external financial funding for their research.
• Association of Public Health Laboratories is an organization comprised of the nation’s large network of state health labs that serve as centralized locations for first response to public health threats.
• Association for Prevention Teaching and Research is an association devoted to the professional development of all professionals involved in health related instruction and research. The membership consists of both individuals and institutions, and includes both physicians and other professionals involved in disease prevention and overall population health.
• Association of Schools of Public Health is devoted to the support of public health schools through facilitating scholarly efforts in research, education, and public health policy. One of the primary benefits of membership is access to a large network of public health schools, private corporations, and government entities.
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials is an advocacy group representing the best interests of its members while also developing sound public health policy and providing the membership with professional development opportunities.
• Council on Education for Public Health is an independent accrediting agency that accredits public health programs in higher education. This private, non-profit organization is recognized by the department of education as the primary accrediting body for public health programs.
• National Association of County and City Health Officials is the primary advocacy group for county and city health officials. NACCHO advocates the development of public health policies that will allow all people to live in health, equity, and security.
• National Institutes of Health is the primary medical research organization in the United States and is the largest source of medical research funding in the world. The goals and research priorities change through congressional legislation aimed at responding to the most pressing medical health issues.
• National Public Health Information Coalition is an organization comprised of public health communicators. The organization realizes the importance not only of research, but of communicating that research both to professional parties and the average person.
• Public Health Institute is an organization devoted to developing both research initiatives and partnerships in the public health arena and combining those things with policy advocacy, the development of best practices, and community strengthening public health programs.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the primary agency of the United States government that is tasked with protecting the public health of U.S. citizens. DHHS is responsible not only for taking a broad view of public health, but also funding state and local public health services and initiatives and distributes more grant money than all other government agencies combined.
• American Public Health Association was founded in 1872 and is the oldest public health organization in the United States. The APHA seeks to provide a collective voice for major public health concerns and improve the public health for every U.S. citizen.

Publications

• Public Health is a interdisciplinary public health journal with a global perspective. The target audience is public health practitioners and research and the goal of the journal is to provide them with high impact research findings on a wide range of public health matters.
• International Journal of Public Health focuses on the publication of qualitative and quantitative public health research. The emphasis of the journal is on original articles covering a broad spectrum of issues within the public health field.
• Journal of Public Health publishes papers on the theory and practice of public health, dealing with any and all aspects of the field, from law and ethics, to practice and research.
• American Journal of Public Health has been published for over 100 years. The content consists primarily of original work in research, research methods, and program evaluation.
• Annual Public Health Review may only be published once per year, but it is a useful place to find a collection of the major advancements from across the public health field that have occurred in the previous year.
• Harvard School of Public Health Magazine is published three times per year by the Harvard School of Public Health and consists of articles addressing major public health issues from faculty and students of one of the top universities in the world.
• Journal of Community Health focuses on the analysis of community health and the publication of research, articles on best practices, and community health education.
• Journal of Public Health Management and Practice deals with the public health field from a management perspective, focusing primarily on practices and innovations in public health management.
• The Nation’s Health is a monthly newspaper produced by the American Public Health Association. The newspaper focuses on covering up to date developments in the field and is a useful supplement to quarterly journals.
• Public Health Reports has been published for nearly 125 years. The publication was taken over by the Association of Schools of Public Health in 1999. This bi-monthly peer reviewed journal focuses primarily on research and practice, and also includes viewpoint and commentary pieces.
• American Journal of Epidemiology is the premier resource for empirical research, methodological developments and opinion pieces and is aimed primarily at epidemiologists, clinicians, and public health workers.
• European Journal of Epidemiology takes a multidisciplinary approach to epidemiology and its content consists largely of review articles, brief reports, and letters. The journal is designed to be of maximum usefulness to policy makers, clinicians, and educators.
• Epidemiology and Infection covers broadly the topic of epidemiological outbreaks in humans and animals, and publishes studies on a broad range of topics from foodborne illness to the social and public health impact of infectious disease.
• Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology focuses on providing professionals that work in a hospital or other healthcare facility with the tools and cutting edge research they need to stay on top of infection control.
• Public Health, Social Medicine, and Epidemiology is designed to be a quick and effective read that allows professionals from across these three disciplines to unite and collaborate for the overall betterment of human society.
• Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine deals with public health topics from a variety of perspectives. Articles are wide ranging and cover major public health issues from conception to death.
• Yale School of Public Health Magazine is focused on updating readers on the progress of important policy initiatives and research being spearheaded by Yale students and faculty.

Conferences

• Association for Community Health Improvement Conference is designed to help attendees achieve success in their field through the presentation of original research and events with professional development themes.
• Public Health Law Research Annual Meeting is focused on bringing together public health legal professionals for a meeting focused on developing new initiatives to positively impact public health.
• National Health Policy Conference strives to put major public health policy issues into perspective for the attendees so that they might better understand the broad issues facing public health policy and policy makers.
• American Bar Association Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law Conference focuses on keeping legal healthcare professionals updated on the ever changing regulatory landscape of healthcare law.
• Public Health Services and Systems Research Keenland Conference focuses on covering the most pressing issues facing public health services and system research. The conference is a place for both networking and the study and discussion of innovations in the field.
• National Network of Public Health Institutes Annual Conference is a gathering of the foremost public health professionals from a wide range of the institutes included in the network including professionals from both established and emerging institutes, state and local institutes, and national partners and trade organizations.
• National Association of County and City Health Officials Annual Conference aims to provide the thousands of attendees with a forum for the discussion of public health from the perspective of the officials on the ground in the nation’s counties and cities.
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Conference focuses on bringing together public health officials from around the country to collaborate on regional solutions for public health issues.
• American Public Health Association Annual Meeting attracts more than 13,000 attendees every year and is the oldest and best established such gathering in the United States. Attendees represent the full range of public health professionals including doctors, nurses, researchers, epidemiologists, educators and more.