Public Health Finance Contributions to the Legacy of Dr. Lloyd Novick

Acquiring adequate financial investments while ensuring uniform financial management practices are dauting tasks that have historically eluded the public health system. Articulating the legacy of Dr. Lloyd Novick must include his leadership role in elevating public health finance to a national platform for scholarly, political, and practice-based discourse. He achieved this major accomplishment through his lifetime as a distinguished servant–leader public health professional and editor of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (JPHMP). In the 2007 special issue of the JPHMP, public health finance was defined as a field to “examine the acquisition, utilization, and management of resources for the delivery of public health functions and the impact of those resources on population health and the public health system.”1 Preceding that issue was the inaugural 2004 Volume 10(5) public health finance special publication that was celebrated with a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded Press Release event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The 2 publications gave us 37 finance focused manuscripts from scholars, practitioners, and the distinguished US. Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In a third JPHMP finance issue in 2012 Volume 18(4), the profession had access to an additional 18 finance-related publications. To quantify Dr. Novick’s impact on the public health profession, the JPHMP is the only publication that has ever dedicated entire issues to a topic so critical to sustaining the public health system. As a physician and public health leader with deep practice-based experiences, he understood the importance that financial resources have in the sustainability of the system. Contributions from the three finance issues sparked interest from authors to submit additional manuscripts on finance topics. A Finance Collection site found at https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/collectiondetails.aspx?TopicalCollectionId=2, includes 62 finance manuscripts. JPHMP Direct accessible at https://jphmpdirect.com/tag/public-health-finance/ is an additional site dedicated to finance topic dialogue. Finance manuscripts presented in the special issues generated interest for structured dialogue at national and local meetings. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) generously supported the effort with roughly $1.6 million in funding over several years to continue advancing the field in partnership with JPHMP. The topics below demonstrate continued relevance and provide foundational knowledge for the next generation of researchers and practitioners. Financial forecasting Funding formulas Uniform analytical approaches for measuring financial performance Models for nationwide electronic financial data collection Framework for a standardized chart-of-accounts Methods for cost estimating and reporting Budgeting best practices Measures to quantify the financial impacts of disparities Community Benefit reporting validity Workforce financial management competencies Accreditation standards A surprise opportunity that ascended out of this effort was an invitation to provide expert support to the Health Education Labor and Pension Committee on the 2006 Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act. Ongoing education of the committee on public health and Public Health Systems and Services Research (PHSSR) combined with testimony before the Committee resulted in $40 million funding for PHSSR that created the Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 This catapult-ed public health financing into the highly visible national policy arena. Simultaneously, demonstration projects were established to advance this as a field of study and to implement uniform management practices in state and local health departments. The Public Health Finance Roundtable was established in 2005 during the APHA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia as a collaboration with Dr. Novick to promote structured dialogue. His engagement in the Roundtable firmly demonstrates his value for learning through dialogue with scholars and practitioners. From a personal perspective, Dr. Novick possessed personal qualities that supported his desire to invest in the lives and careers of others. As a recent doctorate degree graduate, I was surprised by how warmly he accepted my invitation to collaborate as guest editor on the 2004 special public health finance issue. His mentorship was unwavering and sparked in me the courage to pave a course forward for expanding work on public health finance. His choice as a physician for a public health career clearly highlights his desire to improve the lives of others. Dr. Novick didn’t need guidance from policies that promote equity because he sincerely treated everyone equitably with dignity and respect. His actions were always kind and patient even towards a mentee with limited publishing experience who often needed guidance. The lasting legacy of Dr. Novick is clear. He lived a life that invested in and served others with kindness that included individual mentees and entire populations of people. His personal values and character for dignity and respect were unwavering. It was easy to partner with Dr. Novick because he was a man of integrity. Collaborating with him was pleasant and certain to result in shared accomplishments of high significance.