The benefit of such a proposal would be the development of an environment where collaboration between academia and local or state health departments could be fostered, regardless of geographic distance, to maximize varied expertise, and supplement limited human and funding resources. This creative system would assist with productivity in improving community health while assuring students the invaluable opportunity to bridge the public health knowledge obtained in their academic environments with the practical applications of these principles in the ‘‘real world’’ of public health practice. A similar university- state agency relationship is already in practice in the form of the Technology Transfer Center at UNH which bridges academia with civil engineering projects around the state [24]. By creating an entity whose mission is to
develop collaborations, the idea can be more easily circulated throughout the state that there is an existing system to facilitate partnerships between academia and public health.
Figure 1 illustrates the proposed PHx Model. Specifically, the PHx could serve as a two-way exchange of information and resources between academic and LHD partners that include the following: