The second round of reporting on units’ implementation of the 2016 Accreditation Criteria closed on Wednesday, January 9. CEPH staff are busily processing all of the submissions, but we wanted to share some early observations.

 Turnout was impressive! Nearly 25% of units submitted before the deadline, and we heard from everyone on or before the due date. The staff and Council are extremely appreciative—this is a credit to our field!

 With about 35% of precincts reporting, it is too early to make data generalizations, but staff are tracking the results and are eager to share them!

 Staff are tracking data across both years of compliance reporting to see which knowledge areas and competencies are proving the most challenging, and some clear trends stand out already.

  •  To date, nearly all units (98-99%) have shown appropriate assessments for competencies 1 and 4, which relate to epidemiologic methods and interpreting data.
  •  At the other end of the spectrum, competency 21 (interprofessional work) stands out, with early results suggesting compliance levels below 40%. Caveat: our experts tell us that it’s too early to certify these results—the exit polling we have may not be representative!

 We’re also tracking some trends in curricula.

  •  “Integrated core” curricula have generated a great deal of buzz in recent years, but the models based on our early results suggest that only 3-8% of our units are implementing such curricula.
  •  We’ve also been tracking some public concerns that units might be dropping courses that were formerly included in the five core knowledge areas. Early results and models suggest that the overwhelming majority (>70%) of units have not dropped any of the courses formerly associated with core knowledge areas.

 We’re all too familiar with the perils of committing to early projections, but we hope that these initial impressions might be interesting.

Join us on Thursday, April 4 for a more full report on trends from the compliance reports after all of the results are tabulated. The presentation and information will be live on the CEPH website after that date. We look forward to ongoing discussion about the public health curricula of the 21st century!


Written by Mollie Mulvanity, MPH