APHA and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) Partnership for Public Health Quality

The American Public Health Association (APHA) and its affiliates serve as the umbrella association for 50,000 public health professionals from every sector of society and health-related disciplines. APHA has been on the forefront of ensuring quality in public health systems through its standard setting texts, educational programs, and policies that promote quality improvement in a range of public health systems.

In March 2008, the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) convened a Public Health Quality Forum to formulate a macro-level framework to guide quality improvement efforts throughout the public health system. The APHA Executive Director, Georges Benjamin, MD, MPH, participated in the development of the Consensus Statement on Quality in the Public Health System that was released by the ASH in August 2008.  Given its commitment to quality improvement, APHA has created a national function that will work actively to promote the strategic framework for public health quality as outlined in the August 2008 Consensus Statement. The APHA Quality Improvement Program will work with the many existing programs and stakeholders across the system that seek to advance quality improvement.  Funding for this quality partnership with APHA is provided by the Office of Minority Health, Office of Public Health and Science.