Schultz, J., Fawcett, S., Fransico, V. & Berkowitz, B. (2003). Using Information Systems to Build Capacity: A Public Health Improvement Tool Box. Public Health Information and Information Systems. 644-660
The National Turning Point Initiative, jointly funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a major project dedicated to improving population health through an investment in strengthening and transforming the public health infrastructure. In this chapter, the methodology of the project and the ways in which the project is helping states and communities to improve public health are outlined. Much of the chapter focuses on changing and improving systems needed to help states and community partners to undertake activities associated with public health improvement. Central to this effort is the Internet-based Public Health Improvement Tool Box, developed by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas. The Tool Box provides access to information for supporting, documenting, and learning from the work of public health improvement. Although the initiative is ongoing and the lessons about it will come only later, the initiative and Tool Box are exciting developments in the field of public health at the state and local levels.