Arthur M. Wendel

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) builds capacity among partners to detect, respond to, and prevent harmful exposures in communities. ATSDR has developed a wide range of environmental health and environmental medicine resources to train and educate professionals using real-world topics, examples, and case studies. These materials are publicly available for educators, students, and health professionals, and bridge classroom teachings with practical applications. This column describes a pilot initiative that ATSDR conducted to market environmental health and environmental medicine educational resources to U.S. academic institutions. The objectives are to obtain feedback from academic institutions and to inform how to best engage academic audiences and encourage the use of the resources. The ultimate goals are to enhance public health education, build capacity among future environmental health and medical professionals, and help these professionals be better equipped to address real-world environmental health issues.

Background.Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection often causes hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome.Methods. In 2006, the Wisconsin Division