What to know
- CFA collaborates with key public health organizations to connect with state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments, share information, collect feedback, and provide educational opportunities.
- Below are a few ways CFA is working with these partners to increase understanding and use of forecasts and models at the STLT levels.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
With CFA's support, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) launched a five-part Disease Forecasting Learning Series to deepen understanding of how forecasts can be used for public health decision-making and to provide tips on communicating forecasts with the public and policymakers. ASTHO also contributed to CFA's rigorous assessment of health department needs in relation to forecasting and modeling, which included co-organizing with CSTE regional meetings with state health officials and state epidemiologists.
Big Cities Health Coalition
As a new CFA partner, Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) has established a “CFA Forum” to bring together the leaders of America’s largest metropolitan health departments to exchange strategies and jointly discuss how forecasts, models, and advanced analytics can be utilized to protect the health of the 61 million people they serve.
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
CSTE brings together epidemiologists from state and territorial public health agencies with academic and industry modelers to discuss the use and utility of public health forecasting and modeling through groups like the Infectious Disease Forecasting & Modeling Workgroup in collaboration with CFA. CSTE also hosts several other forecasting and modeling convenings such as an annual forecasting and modeling workshop for more than 250 academic partners and health department professionals (since 2017), a pre-conference workshop at the CSTE Annual Conference for more than 200 public health professionals (since 2023), and convenes monthly online forecasting and modeling workgroup calls with more than 650 members from health departments and academia.
Additionally, CSTE hosts the Infectious Disease Modeling 101 for Public Health training on CSTE Learn; launched a peer-to-peer forecasting and modeling technical assistance program for health departments; and maintains partnerships with academics, industry, and other organizations to assess and meet the needs of STLT partners related to forecasting and modeling.
National Association of County and City Health Officials
In partnership with CFA, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) created a Disease Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics Community of Practice for local health departments (LHDs) and provided funding and technical assistance for 15 LHDs to develop forecasting projects. These 15 LHDs also came together for a tabletop outbreak simulation that utilized disease forecasts and advanced analytics at the 2024 Preparedness Summit.
National Conference of State Legislators
Through working with CFA, the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) produced a podcast and a brief for their membership outlining how disease forecasting tools can support policymaking around disease outbreaks and epidemics. They also hosted an educational workshop featuring CFA speakers and other experts for legislative staff to learn about infectious disease forecasts and outbreak analytics as they relate to policymaking, and, at NCSL's 2024 Health Policy Seminar, various CFA staff provided examples of how models can improve public health responses.
Resources
All trainings developed through these partnerships are available in the CFA Learning Library.