Equity Work Among Accredited Health Departments in the United States, 2015-2021.

Objectives: Minimal research has examined the number of health departments conducting work related to equity and/or the kind of work, if any, they are conducting. We examined the relationship between public health accreditation and work related to health equity by analyzing accredited health departments' responses to a prompt in the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB's) annual report.

Methods: We analyzed self-reported responses from accredited health departments to questions about emerging public health issues and innovations in PHAB's annual report.

Heterozygous ATP2A2 missense variant identified in a Shih Tzu with Darier disease.

Darier disease is caused by heterozygous loss of function variants in the ATP2A2 gene encoding the endoplasmic/sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca pump ATP2A2. Defective intracellular calcium signaling in the epidermis results in a loss of desmosomal adhesion and the development of characteristic skin lesions. In this study, we investigated a Shih Tzu that developed erythematous papules on the ventrum and, over time, the dorsal neck and a nodule in the right ear canal with secondary ear infection.

Public Health Department Accreditation and Innovation: A Brief Report of the Approaches Used to Promote Innovation.

To examine the relationship between public health accreditation and innovation, we analyzed accredited health departments' self-reported responses to a prompt within the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB's) Annual Report regarding any approaches to pursuing innovation within their health department. We found that of the 205 health departments examined, 75 (37%) described elements of the health department's approach to fostering innovation. The most common approaches to innovation included partnerships (59% of those health departments that described their innovation approaches) and leadership (27%).

The Power of Community in Addressing Infant Mortality Inequities.

On opposite ends of North Carolina, collaborations in Buncombe and Chatham counties are tackling infant mortality inequities with innovative strategies. While their strategies differ, both groups use an approach that is driven by authentic community voice and directly contributes to dismantling structural racism. The Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville is transitioning their leadership of the Mothering Asheville Coalition to SistasCaring4Sistas, a group of Black doulas with lived experience, and is supporting the doulas' work to become a nonprofit organization that will serve the entire state.

A novel cytological technique for bacterial detection on canine skin.

Background: Cytological examination of the skin is an important diagnostic technique in dermatology for disease diagnosis and monitoring of treatment. Impression smear and tape-strip preparation are gold standard cytological techniques. This study introduces a novel cytological method, slurry preparation, in which debris collected from the skin surface is macerated in warm sterile water and dried on the slide.