NPHIC H1N1 Committee Jeanene Fowler Maricopa County Public Health Chair of NPHIC H1N1 Committee

Last year……………………………….. H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 Everything else

NPHIC’s Response: How Do We Learn And Grow From Our Experiences H1N1 Committee is Born!

Origin of NPHIC H1N1 Committee Part of Cooperative Agreement with CDC Evolved out of Pan Flu Committee Such an important topic, decided to form a separate H1N1 Communications Committee

Plan of Attack February- committee decided to look at H1N1 Best Practices Goal was two-fold Provide utility beyond flu; other Public Health crises Showcase best practices for members to also apply to upcoming flu seasons

Plan of Attack Hot Washes were held by NPHIC board members in every region of the country on these topic areas: Social media Online & Collateral Partnerships Grassroots Translated Material Paid Media Earned Media NPHIC/CDC Communications

Plan of Attack Committee Members now are working to analyze each topic area to pull out trends for a final report Special thanks Bill Walker Crissy Rowland Rocky Merz Leah Bucco-White Nicola Whitley Tom Slater All of NPHIC’s Board Members

Request for materials

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Regions were asked their feelings about communication flow from CDC to NPHIC to members Overall very positive A few specifics…

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Strengths Daily Talking Points “invaluable,” “worth the price of membership alone” Harvard Polling Provided members with valid research and insights and added credibility to the message(s) Conference Calls Allowed members to receive info at the same time or before media Timing was a little problematic because info often changed late in the day

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Challenges Collateral from CDC Members would like to have ads, facts sheets etc sooner and in a wide variety of languages Let locals and states know sooner what was being created-avoid duplication Allow space for local branding – assists in quickly delivering a unified message

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Challenges Al Lundeen, NPHIC Member from CA summed it up: “Yes, they could have been more helpful, but they were probably facing the same challenges we did. You could make the same analogy from the State of California to the county level…had we been quicker, we would have been of greater assistance to the counties. I’m in no way trying to defend the CDC, I just know that agreeing to messages and then the translation process took a while.”

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications CDC Heard Our Need CDC has developed a new campaign rolled out earlier this summer called The Flu Ends with U. See Dr. Kris Sheedy’s session tomorrow explaining more about the campaign

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Challenges The amount of information and the number of times it was being forwarded Late in the response, new information was highlighted in the talking points - a welcome improvement Recommendations for the Future

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Adding a new section when talking points are being distributed called ‘New this Week.” Some like the idea of a centralized website

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Challenges Vaccine Safety – Would have been helpful to have uniform talking points early on Google Flu Finder – Couldn’t keep us with frequently changing info, but good for those people with few other options Sharing - Mechanisms for sharing PSA’s and other materials during a real-time public health event

What would have been more helpful? Rank Order of Importance Knowing weeks ahead of time what themes CDC would use CDC providing space on its materials for co-branding CDC applying a greater degree of Health Literacy standards to its materials Providing basic materials (i.e. FAQs, and fact sheets) in a wider range of languages Total Responses 101 of 200

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Where do we go from here? CDC/HHS Continue working (and funding) organizations like NPHIC who work specifically with communicators in public health.

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Where do we go from here? Continue being the voice of public health acting as a conduit that builds consistent messaging and communications between the federal government and state and local health departments and its agencies NPHIC

Communication Flow NPHIC /CDC Communications Where do we go from here? Members Allow NPHIC to be your communication liaison to the federal government - tell us what works and what doesn’t so we all keep getting better

Questions? Concerns? Thoughts?