title: Consideration of an applied model of public health program infrastructure.
abstract: Systemic infrastructure is key to public health achievements. Individual public health program infrastructure feeds into this larger system. Although program infrastructure is rarely defined, it needs to be operationalized for effective implementation and evaluation. The Ecological Model of Infrastructure (EMI) is one approach to defining program infrastructure. The EMI consists of 5 core (Leadership, Partnerships, State Plans, Engaged Data, and Managed Resources) and 2 supporting (Strategic Understanding and Tactical Action) elements that are enveloped in a program's context. We conducted a literature search across public health programs to determine support for the EMI. Four of the core elements were consistently addressed, and the other EMI elements were intermittently addressed. The EMI provides an initial and partial model for understanding program infrastructure, but additional work is needed to identify evidence-based indicators of infrastructure elements that can be used to measure success and link infrastructure to public health outcomes, capacity, and sustainability.
authors: Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Ms Lavinghouze); ICF International (Ms Snyder), Atlanta, Georgia; Boston University (Dr Rieker); Harvard Medical School (Dr Rieker), Boston, Massachusetts; and San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California (Dr Ottoson).
authors: René
authors: R
authors: Lavinghouze
authors: Kimberly
authors: K
authors: Snyder
authors: Patricia
authors: P
authors: Rieker
authors: Judith
authors: J
authors: Ottoson
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration; D015980:Public Health Practice