As public accountability has increased and resources have become scarcer, public health, like clinical medicine, has been forced to re-examine the benefits and costs of its activities. Decision and economic analysis are basic tools in carrying out that mission. These methods have become standard practice in clinical medicine and health services research. This book, now in its second edition, was written in an effort to apply and adapt that experience to public health situations.

The book was originally written to introduce Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to the concepts of decision and economic analysis, to provide guidance on methods to maximize comparability of studios, and to provide access to frequently used reference information. It has been adapted to meet the needs of scientists and managers in state and local health departments and managed care organizations as well as students in schools of public health and clinicians for an introductory text - a text that shows how these methods can be applied in population-based practice, to facilitate better comparability of studies, and to solidify understanding of the scientific basis for use of these tools in decision making. Decision makers will learn how these studies are conducted so they can be critical consumers, understanding the strengths and limitions, and apply findings to policy and practice.

The second edition updates and expands upon the standard methodology for condcuting prevention effectiveness analyses. Each chapter has been revised or re-written. The chapters on measuring effectiveness, decision analysis, and making information useful for decision makers as well as several appendices are entirely new.

Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, is home to 10 million people and 88 municipalities. It is larger than 41 of the 50 states. Comprising urban centers, extensive suburbs, and low-income, rural, and agricultural communities, it poses complex public health challenges that are diverse in scope and unmatched in scale.
In Public Health Practice: What Works, the leaders of LA County's Department of Public Health compile the lessons and best practices of working in a complex and evolving public health setting. Through stories of success (and challenges) from practice, this book offers a practical guide to effective health policy and program interventions for individuals, teams, practitioners, and departments on any scale.
All facets of public health practice are illustrated through case-specific chapters, including coverage of core capacities, health promotion and protection, emergency response, and service delivery. Techniques and themes addressed here include:
. cross-cutting interventions and intersectoral actions to improve population health
. environmental problems and influences on health outcomes
. policy as a public health tool
. targeted and tailored programs and services, policies, and partnerships
Employing a casebook method to provide real-life teaching tools for practitioners and students, Public Health Practice: What Works is a new benchmark for practical, contemporary public health practice."

Public health surveillance is the systematic, ongoing assessment of the health of a community, based on the collection, interpretation, and use of health data. Surveillance provides information necessary for public health decision making and interventions. In the third edition of Principles and Practice of Public Health Surveillance, the editors present an organized approach to planning, developing, and implementing public health surveillance systems in response to the rapidly changing field of public health. Substantially revised and expanded on, this edition continues to examine further the expansion of surveillance of disease and health determinants, as well as the recent advances in data management and informatics. Major sections of the book focus on bioresponse and preparedness, risk behaviors, and environmental exposure, while the ethical considerations and policy justification for public health surveillance are also explored. Drawing largely from the experience of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other experts in the field, this book provides an excellent framework that collectively improves the surveillance foundation of public health. It will continue to serve as the standard text in the field, an invaluable resource for public health students and the desk reference for public health practitioners.

Statistics and other quantitative methods (e.g. economics, decision theory) are integral to the scientific basis of priority-setting and program evaluation in public health. This book is a concise overview of the statistical approaches to core public health functions: outbreak investigations, policy development, economic and program evaluation, managed care, and program operations