Public Health System Transformation Update Newsletter
March 2024 | View all system transformation newsletters

What's Happening in March 2024 in Public Health System Transformation?

There are SO many things happening across the state that help move us toward a public health system that’s more seamless, responsive, and publicly-supported.

Second round of local innovation projects

The Minnesota Infrastructure Fund is supporting a second round of locally-led, two-year innovation projects.

Current and future locally-led innovation projects are testing new ways of doing foundational public health work that could be used across the state—locally, regionally, or statewide.

Learn more: Innovation Projects (Infrastructure Fund)

Statewide environmental system/policy scan

An environmental scan of our public health system and its policies will help shed light on current and future activities.

To see where to go next, we have to know where we are. This environmental scan of our public health system and its policies maps out the relationships, information, power, and other factors that help and hinder our public health work in Minnesota. Many of you have participated in interviews to share your view of the system and how you see it working—thank you!

This work is conducted by consultants and advised by a Joint Leadership Team workgroup.

Dedicated funding for foundational responsibilities

Community health boards are growing their ability to do foundational work, with funding dedicated specifically to foundational public health responsibilities.

This non-competitive funding is a down payment on Minnesota’s public health system, and helps make sure that all of the state’s health departments can build capacity to do foundational work. This helps strengthen the entire system by filling in the missing pieces of what we’ve often called Minnesota’s “patchwork quilt” of system-wide public health capacity.

Learn more: Funding for Foundational Public Health Responsibilities

What are foundational public health responsibilities? We'll take a deeper dive next month; in the meantime, visit Foundational Public Health Responsibilities and Framework to learn more about foundational responsibilities, areas, and capabilities, and how equity encircles them all.

Strengthening Tribal public health infrastructure

Work to strengthen Tribal public health moves in parallel to state and local activities.

As sovereign nations with their own public health authority, many of the tribal nations Minnesota shares geography with are also assessing their public health infrastructure against national standards, and considering what it looks like to strengthen their work and build capacity to meet their needs.

Indigenous consultants conduct this work alongside MDH staff.

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