Carefully designed infographics can be useful tools to support comprehension and thus help patients engage with their own health data. Infographics may contribute to patients' ability to participate in the Learning Health System through participation in the development of a robust data utility, use of clinical communication tools for health self-management, and involvement in building knowledge through patient-reported outcomes.

Emergency preparedness is an expectation of public health organizations and an expectation of individual public health practitioners. Organizational performance standards for public health agencies have been developed during the last several years, providing a foundation for the development of competency statements to guide individual practice in public health program areas, like emergency response. This article provides results from a project that developed emergency preparedness and response competencies for individual public health workers. Documentation of the qualitative research methods used, which include competency validation with the practice community, can be applied to competency development in other areas of public health practice.

A public health workforce that is competent to respond to emergencies is extremely important. We report on the impact of a training program designed to prepare public health nurses to respond appropriately to emergencies. The program focused on the basic public health emergency preparedness competencies and the emergency response role of public health workers employed by the New York City School Department of Health and Mental Hygiene School Health Program. The evaluation methods included pre/post-testing followed by a repeat post-test one month after the program. The program resulted in positive shifts in both knowledge and emergency response attitudes.