Public Health Innovations Catalog

The COVID-19 pandemic created an extraordinary public health challenge, requiring state, local, Tribal and territorial public health agencies and their partners to mount emergency responses amid ever-changing information. As the pandemic progresses, it is critical for those working on COVID-19 response, recovery, and resiliency activities to reflect on what they have learned to better position themselves for ongoing COVID-19 work and future public health emergencies.

An After Action Review is a powerful tool that can help organizations reflect, assess, learn, and improve. Organizations can use the review retrospectively to assess previous work or activities, or it can serve as a useful tool to guide in-action reviews of ongoing work or activities. Mathematica, in collaboration with the Public Health Foundation, has developed a toolkit to help organizations conduct effective, equitable, and trauma-informed After Action Reviews.

This free toolkit focuses specifically on After Action Reviews that public health authorities and their partners can conduct to assess COVID-19 response, recovery, and resiliency work. This toolkit draws on trauma-informed and equitable approaches to planning, conducting, and following up after an After Action Review. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on public health professionals, frontline health care workers, first responders, and the world at large, making a trauma-informed approach to After Action Reviews especially valuable. Moreover, the pandemic's disproportionate effects on communities of color requires an equitable approach to planning, conducting, and following up after the review to achieve the greatest impact.