FPHI Executive Summary
The Florida Public Health Institute is currently located on approximately 135 acres in Lantana, Florida (Florida Public Health Campus). Although the Institute and Campus are related and complement each other, the Florida Public Health Institute’s (FPHI) stand alone mission is to form in Palm Beach County and the state of Florida, a non-profit independent partnership of the academic, public health and local community to solve health related problems though collaboration and an increased use of academic resources. FPHI will also promote improvements in health through health advocacy, education of the community and health workforce and through basic and applied research. Positive health system change, for example, will be done in part by working with statewide partners to increase access to healthcare for the uninsured through increased numbers of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) sites and by promoting the formulation of improved health and public health policy.
Since its inception in 2006, FPHI has brought together leaders from academia; city, county and state government; foundations; business and industry and the local communities. Partners include the Town of Lantana, Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, Florida Department of Health, A.G. Holley Hospital, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade County Health Departments, Florida International University, University of South Florida School of Public Health and Florida Atlantic University. In 2007, FPHI received operational funding ($1.25 million) from the National Network of Public Health Institutes/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Quantum Foundation and was chosen to be the lead institute on a national CDC preparedness modeling project in partnership with public health institutes in Michigan and New Hampshire.
FPHI’s current five year strategic outline includes the development of centers of excellence for workforce development, bio-preparedness and health system readiness, preventive and primary care and a center for education, research and training. FPHI looks forward to participating as a collaborator, not a competitor, with state and local health departments and universities and being a vehicle for positive health system change wherever the opportunity may arise.
It is our vision that FPHI will evolve into an Institute with multiple governmental and private funding sources with connections to all academic public health institutions in Florida. These affiliations will bring additional intellectual capital to enhance health care services and an improved health system fabric throughout the state and nationally. FPHI has already begun to form the necessary strategic partnerships to address education, research and policy issues. To date, FPHI has organized a two week “Masters Course in Public Health” with the cooperative assistance of seven universities from across the state, developed a county/state Public Health Nursing Workforce project, been chosen as lead Institute for a CDC national preparedness modeling project, coordinated a local partnership to present a business focused bio-preparedness health summit in November 2007 and is currently planning a 2008 health summit highlighting national and international water technologies and safety issues.