Strategic Plan Update: Collaborating With the Community to Advance Health
As DUSON begins the strategic plan implementation process, we know that a clear vision is of utmost importance as we, faculty, staff, and students, engage and enroll in the process.
In an effort to provide continuous communication to promote our strategic plan goals, strategies and process, the Monday Update will include feature articles on various aspects of the implementation process.
For the next several weeks, we will feature more about the importance, goals and priority strategies of the six focus areas - Education, Research, Clinical Practice, Community Health Improvement, Global Health and People & Environment.
This week, we start with Community Health Improvement. The three goals identified for this area are:
- Strengthen DUSON's capacity to promote community engagement and health improvement.
- Create, evaluate and disseminate effective community and population-based models for practice, education and research.
- Enhance the impact of DUSON's programs and resources to reduce health inequities and disparities.
The group identified two priority strategies to focus on for the 2016-2017 academic year:
- Develop a centralized office within DUSON to coordinate the community and population health improvement agenda.
- Create a research cluster specific to community and population health improvement.
Let's hear from Executive Sponsor Barbara Turner and Strategy Lead Donna Biederman on what this all means.
Q: Why are the goals for the community health improvement so important?
Biederman: In 2015, Duke launched the Center for Community and Population Health Improvement and Chancellor Washington included Community Health Improvement as one of the Mission Areas for Duke Health’s strategic plan; this was a focus area of the DUSON strategic plan as well. DUSON has enjoyed a long standing relationship with many community partners with the goal of improving community health. Right now there is a lot of momentum within multiple entities at Duke to bring the many people who work directly in the community together and work synergistically. DUSON is poised to become a key member of this emerging collaborative and has faculty with expertise community health education, research, clinical practice, and research.
Q: Why were your two priority strategies chosen?
Turner: The two priorities were selected as they were highly ranked as a priority by those attending the strategic planning sessions. Additionally, each one overlaps or is leveraged by a strategic priority in one of the other areas ( global and research).
Q: What do you and your team hope to accomplish before the end of this calendar year?
Turner: Each strategic priority team has already met to make plans for the semester. Dr Biederman is the lead for the priority on developing a centralized office within DUSON to coordinate the community and population health improvement agenda. Her team has met and is starting with benchmarking with other institutions and discussing what would this office be charge with accomplishing. Dr Gonzalez- Guarda is the lead on creating a research cluster specific to community and population health. Her team has also met and one outcome was a meeting with Dr. Hockenberry to discuss ways to incorporate their efforts into the strategic plans of the research center. These are two enthusiastic teams who have great ideas for DUSON in the upcoming years!