Emphasizing the value of data and importance of building coalitions, Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, told attendees of the inaugural State of Public Health Conference the state's broader public health status is trending in the right direction.

  

The conference brought together more than 200 representatives from public health, primary care and academic and business communities to discuss the various public health challenges facing Georgia. Hosted by the Georgia Public Health Training Center at the University of Georgia, the conference featured several interactive, solution-driven workshops tackling a variety of key public health issues in the state.

  

Fitzgerald said the conference was a clear signal of the level of support for advancing a positive public health agenda in Georgia.

  

"The final analysis is that we are ready to soar, and this inaugural conference is pretty indicative of that," Fitzgerald said. "That's because a lot of people know that we can help determine where Georgia can go as far as our health. This conference will develop an actionable plan to outline what we can do to move forward so we can improve the health and protect the lives of every single person in Georgia."

  

Fitzgerald's speech focused on the successes DPH has had during the past two years. One of its early success stories is the state's reduction in its infant mortality rate from 8.4 percent in 2006 to 6.3 percent today. Fitzgerald said the state relied on its existing data to identify the roots of the problem, then assembled a coalition of multiple partners to determine how to use that data to address the problem.

  

The state mapped out one-square-mile grids of where the mothers lived, factored in various pieces of relevant data and examined instances of infant mortality in those grids. Fitzgerald said one piece of data that stood out during the initial analysis was that in 2009, Georgia had an elective premature (pre-39 weeks of pregnancy) birth rate of 65 percent.

  

She said children born prior to 39 weeks have more respiratory issues, higher rates of stay in neo-natal intensive care, higher instances of antibiotic use and even lower standardized test scores than those born 39 weeks or later. Working with multiple partners, including the March of Dimes, DPH worked to share the data with the medical community and the public and, as of September 2012, the state's elective premature rate had plummeted to 4.5 percent.

  

Fitzgerald also shared initial findings from Gov. Nathan Deal's SHAPE initiative, designed to combat childhood obesity in Georgia. As part of SHAPE, children in Georgia must take a physical activity assessment, known as a FitnessGram, measuring their level of fitness.

  

She said only 16 percent of schoolchildren in Georgia were able to pass the test's most basic parts, while 20 percent were unable to pass any portion of the FitnessGram.

  

Fitzgerald announced her department, in collaboration with the UGA College of Public Health and the state's Department of Education, will work with all of Georgia's elementary schools to increase physical activity by adding 30 minutes of activity into the classrooms each day.

  

"What Georgia has to do is not just have the state do certain things like change rules for schools lunches," Fitzgerald said. "We need every segment of society to make some changes, and that includes changing what we do, what our children do, what our parents do, what our schools do and, ultimately, what society does. I'm convinced we can do it."

  

Earlier in the day, Tyler Norris, vice president of total health partnerships at Kaiser Permanente, called on conference attendees to emphasize how public health can not only boost societal health, but also educational performance and economic development.

"We have to be transpartisan in this environment," Norris said. "We need to focus on health and prosperity, not partisanship and divide, and doing so will help us get beyond the toxicity of Washington, D.C. for some real change."