The peer-reviewed literature cites evidence that academic institution-health department partnerships can be successful in addressing local public health issues.
For example, Petroroet al. [16] report on a successful partnership between academia and a state health department that addressed the incidence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci infections in
the community. The authors also identified challenges experienced by their collaboration, such as scheduling conflicts among partners and data availability issues [16]. However, they concluded that despite these challenges, ‘‘…faculty should strongly consider developing partnerships with public health practice in order to contribute to important public health surveillance and other functions, and to provide relevant experiences for students [16]. In addition, Lovelace examined the collaboration between local health departments in North Carolina and other community groups and organizations [17]. The authors’ results indicated a positive
correlation between the extent of the LHD’s collaboration with community-based organizations and public health performance [17]. Similarly, Livingood et al. [18] assessed the status of academic institution-public health agency partnerships in Florida and concluded that ‘‘…the partnerships
were perceived to enhance the local health system’s capacity’’.