HI was at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Annual Meeting and Policy Summit most of last week.  This year’s meeting was entitled Achieving Population Health in Evolving Systems.  We shared best practices with each other about different ways states are approaching population health.  We heard from the Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris D. Lushniak, MD, MPH, who provided a federal perspective.  We also covered the progress that the US has made addressing this year’s ASTHO Presidential Challenge to address the prescription painkiller epidemic through Prevention Strategies, Monitoring and Surveillance, Control and Enforcement, and Treatment and Recovery.

ASTHO’s 2015 Presidential Challenge is to promote the health of older adults by collaborating across sectors.  The challenge aims to galvanize support for state health officials, public health teams, state and local experts in aging and a broad network of partners, to implement evidence-based strategies for increasing the number of older adults who are living well in our communities.  More on this in the coming weeks and months.