09/09/2020
Updates Released on the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS)
The American Medical Association provided the following information to all states this week.
The 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS) framework was developed in 1994 by a federal working group. It serves as the description of the activities that public health systems should undertake in all communities. Organized around the three core functions of public health—assessment, policy development, and assurance—the framework is a roadmap for health departments and community partners across the nation. Over the past 25 years, the EPHS has driven public health department accreditation, shaped curricula, and given the field of public health concrete, collective priorities.
Given the public health landscape’s dramatic shift since the framework’s creation, many public health leaders have agreed on the need to revisit whether and how this framework can better reflect current and future practice, leading the Public Health National Center for Innovations (PHNCI) and the de Beaumont Foundation to revise the EPHS in partnership with a task force of public health experts.
Based upon the collective work of these groups the revised EPHS framework was released this week. The new EPHS centers around equity and promotes policies, systems, and overall community conditions that enable optimal health for all and seek to remove systemic and structural barriers that have resulted in health inequities.
If you have questions about this information
or OSMA’s services to physicians:
Call 800-766-6762 or email OSMA.