Accessing, interpreting, and communicating information to guide public health decision making
OVERVIEW
NAHDO is in Year Two of three of a Cooperative Agreement with CDC for “Improving State and Local Health Information and Data Systems”. This project is building on the foundation established during the previous Cooperative Agreement, including Year One of this project, and is targeted to improve state and local health agency capacities to regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze, and disseminate information on the health of their populations and communities. The goals of this three-year project include: (1) assisting in development of a more effective public health workforce, with an emphasis on health data agencies, and (2) promoting linkage across public health data systems. Objectives for Year Two are to finalize and disseminate a technical assistance training plan; implement and maintain the training plan and website; and improve data linkage capacity in health data programs.
BACKGROUND
Beginning in 1992 and now in its fourth 5-year funding cycle, the Assessment Initiative is a cooperative program between the CDC and state health departments that supports the development of innovative systems and methods to improve the way data are used to provide information for public health decisions and policy. Since its inception, CDC has funded Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maine. Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ncw York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas. Ltah, Virginia, and Washington. In the 2007-2012 funding cycle, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhodc Island, and Virginia, were funded.
Through the Assessment Initiative, funded states work together with local health jurisdictions and communities to improve
Access to data,
Skills to accurately interpret and understand data, and
Use of the data so that assessment findings ultimately drive public health program and policy decisions.
The Assessment Initiative serves as a "test-bed" for developing new methodologies and promising practices in two primary focus areas: Web-based data dissemination systems and community health practices. CDC plays lead role in disseminating the outcomes of this work to the larger public health community.
For more information on Assessment Initiative-sponsored activities, tools, and resources, visit the CDC Assessment Initiative Web Site: http://www.cdc.gov/ncphi/od/ai
DATA DISSEMINATION SYSTEMS
Objectives: Implementation of Internet-based query systems for user-friendly analysis, dissemination of population data for community health assessment, and evaluation of the impact of these systems on primary users.
New Hampshire Health Web-based Reporting and Query System (NH Health WRQS) is an interactive query system that is accessed by community health professionals and state staff through a secure VPN connection. The system produces community health indicator reports on birth, death, cancer incidence, hospital inpatient and emergency department data sets. Through the Al funding (2007-2012), HealthWRQS will incorporate BRFSS, healthcare claims, and perfonnance measures data.
Rhode Island's Developing Assessment Initiative Data Dissemination System -The Rhode Island HEALTH Web Query System (http://www.health.ri.gov/data/webquery.php) provides access to health data and infonnation online. The Web Query System currently contains nine years (1998-2006) of RI BRfSS data and three years (2001, 2003, and 2005) of Rl YRBS data. The system is complemented by an on-line tutorial and data access, use, interpretation and presentation workshops. The system is publicly accessible and requires no sign-in or registration.
The Illinois Health Data Dissemination Initiative (IHDDI) focuses on re-engineering Illinois' data dissemination system through an expanded and improved web-based data query system (WDQS). Steering Committee and public health system Advisory Committee will lead the construction of the core functional components of a centralized data system.
COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSESSMENT PRACTICE
Objectives: Development, implementation, and evaluation of tools, strategies, and approaches to improve the capacity of local public health agencies and communities to conduct effective community health assessments, and demonstrate how the resulting data have been used to affect public health programs and policies.
COMPASS (Comprehensive Assessment, Strategic Success) is the Florida Department of Health's Assessment Initiative-supported community health assessment and health improvement planning initiative. Using the National Association of County and City Health Officials' (NACCHO) Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) strategic health planning model as its framework, COMPASS builds capacity in local public health systems by providing information resources, tools, workforce development opportunities and technical assistance. Florida's interactive, web-based public health data system, Community Health Assessment Resource Tool Set (CHARTS) provides access to more than 800 health indicators presented in a variety of formats including tables, graphs, trend lines, and maps. CHARTS can be accessed at www.floridacharts.com. COMPASS tools and resources are available at www.doh.state.fl.us/COMPASS/.
New Mexico is both a minority-majority state, with the second highest percentage of Native Americans and the highest percentage of Hispanics in the United States, and a US-Mexico border state, presenting unusual challenges for improving the health status of the population. The state's Assessment Initiative project is a partnership between the Department of Health, the County Health Councils, the Tribal Health Councils, the two Tribal Epidemiology Centers, the Indian Health Service, and the University of New Mexico to improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of local public health data, and to build local capacity to complete community health assessments which guide program and policy changes. The state is in the process of implementing Utah's internet-based data query system, the Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health (IBIS-PH), which will provide user-friendly access to infornlation on the health status of New Mexicans, including vital statistics, surveillance data, and health care utilization data.
Arkansas has a relatively small Latino population that is the most rapidly growing Latino population in the country. Additionally, Arkansas is home to a large group of Marshall Islanders. Understanding the health status and disease burden of diverse population are important tasks for the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). The Assessment Initiative project plans to improve the processes and outcomes of community health assessment activities; develop, test, implement, and evaluate tools and methods to complete community health assessments throughout the state; and, particularly, develop, test and implement linguistically-and culturally-appropriate tools and methods for use with diverse, hard-to-reach population subgroups.
Virginia's overall goal for the Assessment Initiative is to enhance community health assessment activities in the state central office and the 35 local health districts through the provision of timely, accurate, and standardized data and infonnation. Virginia's project will involve loading key Maternal and Child Health (MCH) datasets into Virginia's Data Warehouse and designing and implementing f1exible internet-based query tools to improve community assessment activities. Although the datasets and indicators will focus on MCH, enhancements to the Data Warehouse and community health assessment training will benefit all program areas within the Department of Health.
The North Carolina Community Assessment Integration Project is a collaborative, ongoing initiative between the Office of Healthy Carolinians/Health Education and the NC State Center for Health Statistics. The practice of community health assessment (CHA) in NC is a widely accepted, institutionalized system that requires local health departments and/or Healthy Carolinians partnerships to conduct a community assessment on a four-year cycle and provide a State-of-the-County (SOTCH) report every three years. The NC CHA provides communities with critical, relevant health information; builds partnerships through a collaborative approach; allows the inclusion of primary data to drive county health decision-making; influence and advocate for policy changes for community health improvement, and gives communities empowerment.