APHL’s Top 10 Stories of 2022

Graphic says: APHL's Top Stories of 2022

Year after year we at APHL continue to be impressed with public health laboratory staff around the world. As 2022 comes to a close, we reflect on a year that brought many challenges and many successes. These ten stories highlight just a small segment of the work public health laboratories have done this year to respond to emergencies and perform routine testing to keep their communities safe and healthy. The stories don’t cover everything, of course, but they certainly demonstrate why we are so proud of our members and partners year after year. Thank you to every single person who supported the public’s health in 2022. We look forward to telling the stories of your work in 2023!

While these stories had the most views or downloads in their respective publications, there are many more excellent stories in Lab Matters, on the APHL Blog or on the Lab Culture podcast so be sure to check those out too! This list is in chronological order of the date they were published:

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Lab Culture ep. 30: APHL CEO Scott Becker wants to bring public health laboratory work into the foreground

Photo of Scott Becker, APHL CEO, speaking with Michelle Forman for Lab Culture, APHL's podcast.

It’s September which means it is Public Health Laboratory Appreciation Month! We are kicking off a month of celebrating by chatting with Scott Becker, APHL CEO, about the exciting work being done by public health laboratory staff as well as the challenges many face. Scott also shares what he’s most looking forward to in the year to come.

Don’t forget to follow #ThanksPHLabs and APHL on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok this Public Health Laboratory Appreciation Month!

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts:

Links:

2022 Public Health Laboratory Appreciation Month Toolkit

E. coli Outbreak with Unknown Food Source (August 2022)

New Public Health Laboratory Workforce Pipeline Project Receives Historic and Much-Needed $282 Million Investment

What is the APHL-CDC Fellowship Program and why should you consider applying?

APHL.org/Fellowships

APHL ID Lab Con 2023

APHL Newborn Screening Symposium

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Lab Culture Ep. 21: 2019 Year in Review

Collage of photos depicting APHL's 2019 year in review

Are we already at the end of 2019?! While to many of us it felt like the year flew by, APHL staff, members and partners accomplished a LOT in an effort to protect the public’s health. In this episode, Scott Becker, APHL’s executive director, reviews some of the highlights of the year along with Gynene Sullivan, APHL’s manager of communications, who is finalizing our Annual Report.

Follow APHL on TwitterFacebook and Instagram so you don’t miss anything!

Links:

APHL: Lung Injury Response Associated with Vaping

CDC: Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with the Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products

APHL work on opioids

Data: Elemental to Health advocacy campaign

Supporting rapid exchange of public health data is urgent, crucial and laden with challenges

APHL AIMS Platform

Lab Matters (Fall 2019): Making Data Fly

NewSTEPs Data Repository

APHL Newborn Screening Systems Quality Improvement Projects Award Recipients Announced

APHL Public Health Laboratory Fellowships

APHL Emerging Leader Program

Lab Culture Ep. 9: What is the APHL Emerging Leader Program?

CDC: US Measles Cases and Outbreaks in 2019

“Launching Whole Genome Sequencing in the Public Health Realm” Lab Matters (Fall 2013)

Accreditation for Human and Animal Food Labs

APHL Conferences

Lab Culture Extra: Progress in Sierra Leone

APHL Global Health Program: Countries we serve

Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP)

Laboratory Response Network (LRN)

Lab Culture Ep. 20: 20 Years of the Laboratory Response Network

“Two Decades of Preparedness Excellence: The Laboratory Response Network” Lab Matters (Fall 2019)

The LRN’s job is to prepare, detect and respond. But what exactly does that mean?

Strengthening Lab Biosafety & Biosecurity

“Ensuring Readiness for Rabies in Puerto Rico” Lab Matters (Spring 2019)

“Public Health System Recovery in Full Swing: Hurricane Response in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands” Lab Matters (Spring 2019)

In Puerto Rico, a new molecular bacteriology lab allows better control of foodborne outbreaks

APHL Publications

“US officials identify ‘strong culprit’ in vaping illnesses” Associated Press (video interview)

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Lab Culture Ep. 19: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha- Storytelling and the Flint Water Crisis

Michelle Forman interviewing Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, author of What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, joins us for an interview about the importance of storytelling in public health. Did Dr. Mona’s successful use of narratives allow Flint’s story to be as resilient as the people who lived it?

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Links

Is water in Flint safe to drink? It’s not just a question of chemistry. [Op-ed by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha]

What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

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Lab Culture Ep. 16: Informatics, health equity and bat snuggles

Lab Culture Ep. 16: Informatics, health equity and bat snuggles | www.APHLblog.org

Joanne Bartkus, APHL’s board president and director of the Public Health Laboratory at the Minnesota Department of Health, sat down with Scott Becker, our executive director, and Gynene Sullivan, editor of Lab Matters magazine, to talk about priorities for the year. Their conversation ranged from informatics to health equity to… snuggling with a bat?!

Joanne Bartkus, PhD, D(ABMM)
Director, Public Health Laboratory, Minnesota Department of Health

Scott J. Becker, MS
Executive director, Association Public Health Laboratories​
@ScottJBecker

Links:

Lab Matters

Lab Matters — Android app

Lab Matters — iTunes app

APHL Board of Directors

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Lab Culture Ep. 12: Bitten by the public health bug — How I found my lab niche

Lab Culture Ep. 12: Bitten by the public health bug -- How I found my lab niche | www.APHLblog.org

The people who work in public health laboratories make a difference in your community daily. In this third episode, members of the Emerging Leader Program cohort 10 sit down with their peers to hear how their public health laboratory careers have made an impact.

You can listen to our show via the player embedded below or on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Please be sure to subscribe to Lab Culture so you never miss an episode.

ELP cohort 10 members featured in this episode:

Interviewees:

  • Degina Booker has been working in the public health lab for 40 years and is now the administrative services director for the Mississippi Public Health Lab.
  • Dr. Burton Wilcke, Jr., now retired, has worked in public health laboratories for over 35 years in Vermont, Michigan and California. Dr. Wilcke remains active in the public health laboratory community as a member of both the APHL Workforce Development Committee  and the Global Health Committee.
  • Dr. Musau WaKabongo, now retired, was the Public Health Laboratory Director at the Placer County Public Health Laboratory  and has worked in several public health laboratories in California for 13 years.
  • Dr. Maria Ishida has been working in public health for 11 years and is now the director of the New York State Food Laboratory.

Are you thinking about a career in a public health laboratory?

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Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs?

Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs? | www.APHLblog.org

Maybe the saying is true: you don’t know what you had until it is gone. For the families in this episode, the absence of public health laboratories turned their worlds upside down and negatively impacted both the present and future. These families represent us all and highlight the vulnerabilities that would exist if there were no public health laboratories working continuously to keep our communities and populations safe.

This is the second episode in the series produced by members of the Emerging Leader Program cohort 10.

You can listen to our show via the player embedded below or on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Please be sure to subscribe to Lab Culture so you never miss an episode.

Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs? | www.APHLblog.orgEmerging Infectious Disease Response:

APHL’s Infectious Disease Program

Laboratory Response Network (LRN)

Interviewer: Kate Wainwright, PhD, D(ABMM), HCLD (ABB), MPH, MSN, RN, deputy director, Public Health Protection and Laboratory Services, Indiana State Department of Health

Expert: Peter Shult, PhD, director, Communicable Disease Division; associate director, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs? | www.APHLblog.orgNewborn Screening:

APHL’s Newborn Screening Program

NewSTEPs

Baby’s First Test

Interviewer: Josh Rowland, MBA, MT(ASCP), manager, Training and Workforce Development, Association of Public Health Laboratories

Expert: Miriam Schachter, PhD, research scientist 3, New Jersey Department of Health, Newborn Screening Laboratory

 

Lab Culture Ep. 11: What if there were no public health labs? | www.APHLblog.orgFoodborne Illness:

APHL’s Food Safety Program

5 Things You Didn’t Know (but Need to Know) About Listeria

Interviewer: Samir Patel, PhD, FCCM, (D)ABMM, clinical microbiologist, Public Health Ontario; Toronto, Canada

Expert: Vanessa Allen, MD, MPH, medical microbiologist, chief of microbiology, Public Health Ontario; Toronto, Canada

 

Narrator:  Erin Bowles, B.S., MT(ASCP), Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network coordinator and co-biosafety officer, Communicable Disease Division, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Contributor: Emily Travanty, PhD, scientific director, Laboratory Services Division, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Special thanks to Jim Hermanson at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene for his help in recording this episode.

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Lab Culture Ep. 1: Critical Consequences

Lab Culture Ep. 1: Critical Consequences | www.APHLblog.org

Did you know that the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) includes critical public health funding? What would the repeal of the ACA mean for public health? Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL’s senior director of public policy, talks about the CDC-managed Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) program, a source of crosscutting support for public health laboratories funded under the ACA through the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF).

Download or stream APHL’s new podcast, Lab Culture, Ep. 1: Critical Consequences.

Links:

ELC Program: Essential Funding for Public Health Lab Response (APHL.org)

Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) Cooperative Agreement (CDC.gov)

Critical Public Health Fund Would Be Lost With ACA Repeal

Find your State or Territorial Health Official

Find your US Senators

Find your US Representative

Peter Kyriacopoulos on Twitter

APHL Blog

@APHL on Twitter

APHL on Facebook

APHL.org

 

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