The past decade has seen a growing recognition of the importance of social determinants of health for health outcomes. However, the degree to which US health systems are directly investing in community programs to address social determinants of health as opposed to screening and referral is uncertain. We searched for all public announcements of new programs involving direct financial investments in social determinants of health by US health systems from January 1, 2017, to November 30, 2019. We identified seventy-eight unique programs involving fifty-seven health systems that collectively included 917 hospitals. The programs involved at least $2.5 billion of health system funds, of which $1.6 billion in fifty-two programs was specifically committed to housing-focused interventions. Additional focus areas were employment (twenty-eight programs, $1.1 billion), education (fourteen programs, $476.4 million), food security (twenty-five programs, $294.2 million), social and community context (thirteen programs, $253.1 million), and transportation (six programs, $32 million). Health systems are making sizable investments in social determinants of health.

Local health information can be a powerful vehicle for improving the health of a community. It can highlight both the existence of problems and opportunities for improvement. It can also guide local action in support of policy changes and improve programs' effectiveness. However, efforts to expand the availability and use of local health information face major technical and institutional barriers, as well as health information privacy concerns. This paper provides an overview of current issues surrounding the availability and use of local health information, identifies barriers that hinder its use, and suggests potential solutions.

A series of experiments were undertaken in order to understand and predict the dosage of powdered activated carbon required to remove taste and odour compounds in an Australian drinking water treatment plant. Competitive effects with organic matter removal by aluminium sulphate during coagulation were also quantified. Data on raw and finished water quality following jar tests, as well as chemical dosages and treatment performance, were statistically analysed, and a data-driven prediction model was developed. The developed powdered activated carbon dosage prediction model can be used by the plant operators for rapid dosage assessment and can increase the preparedness of the plant to sudden taste and odour events. It was also found that total organic carbon levels and properties greatly affect the ability of powdered activated carbon to remove taste and odour compounds; on the other hand, total organic carbon removal is not affected by high taste and odour levels, since these were still much lower than organic carbon concentrations.

The Multistate Learning Collaborative on Performance and Capacity Assessment or Accreditation of Public Health Departments (MLC) is an initiative undertaken with the Exploring Accreditation Project (EAP). The EAP is jointly funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and staffed collaboratively by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to explore the implications and feasibility of a national public health accreditation system. The MLC, also financially supported through grants from RWJF, is designed under the auspices of the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) and the Public Health Leadership Society (PHLS) to enhance the accreditation/assessment activities already underway in each of the grantee states; to promote learning among the states participating in the collaborative; to disseminate information to state and local health departments nationally; and to inform the work of the EAP. Five states with mature accreditation or assessment programs were selected from among 18 applicants. This article describes the ongoing work, including breakthroughs and challenges, in these natural "laboratories" so that this information may be a resource for other states as well as nationally.