Infrastructure Matters: A New Model for Strengthening Public Health

To help policy-makers and public health leaders more effectively make their case for increased funding, we proposed a new conceptual model that describes in simple terms how investments in infrastructure, using our knowledge of essential functions and foundational public health services, creates the building blocks upon which individual public health programs can succeed in protecting and promoting the public's health while preventing disease [4] Following the publication of the Institute of Medicine's report The Future of Public Health [6], a serious decades-long stepwise approach involving local, state, federal, tribal, territorial, academic, and philanthropic participation has clearly defined public health's core functions and essential services, established rigorous standards and metrics, and provided a framework for accrediting public health agencies [7,8] The World Health Organization has developed standards and measures (International Health Regulations 2005) directed at strengthening national-level public health systems to prevent and control national outbreaks and global pandemics [11]