New Name for Denver Public Health

September 14, 2021

PHIDH News Item

The Public Health Institute at Denver Health - Highlights Broad Reach of Work and Community Impact

The Public Health Institute at Denver Health, formerly Denver Public Health, today announced its new identity and vision for innovating practice and improving health. The result of more than two years of strategic and business planning, the new name better reflects the full extent of the organization’s capabilities and work at the intersection of public health, medical care, and research.

“Our new name highlights the unique role we play in Denver, the metro area and across the region,” said Bill Burman, M.D., executive director of the Public Health Institute at Denver Health (PHIDH). “One of the clear lessons of the current pandemic is that county lines don’t matter much to a virus, or any other health problem. Whether it is providing tuberculosis prevention and control services in the sevencounty metro area or providing regional data on COVID-19 vaccination, the Public Health Institute at Denver Health is able to work across jurisdictional lines to improve health.”

The Public Health Institute at Denver Health, a department within Denver Health, is part of an integrated health system. The department leverages its knowledge of how medical care works to collaborate with health care systems to increase prevention and engage communities. For example, PHIDH manages a grant that supports The Alliance for HPV Free Colorado to prevent HPV-related cancer through vaccination. PHIDH also provides training and capacity-building services for HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention to health care and public health systems in multistate regions around Colorado. These examples are a small representation of the work carried out by PHIDH.

“One of the Public Health Institute at Denver Health’s strengths is the ability to understand the overlap between public health and medical care,” said Denver Health CEO, Robin Wittenstein. “This perspective is applied to their role in training other public health entities from around the country to go beyond medical treatment to find the root cause of public health issues.”

About the Public Health Institute at Denver Health

About the Public Health Institute at Denver Health The Public Health Institute at Denver Health, a department of Denver Health, is a nationally recognized public health agency committed to innovating practice and improving health for everyone by working with communities and partners. Formerly known as Denver Public Health, PHIDH combines science, education, and social impact to inform the public health care community about today’s public health opportunities and ways to advance community health.

Media Contact: Elizabeth Jumel, elizabeth@keetonpr.com, (303) 495-3070