Overview
The Environmental Health Specialists Network Information System
(EHSNIS) is an Internet application developed at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). EHSNIS currently supports
the data collection activities of the Environmental Health
Specialists Network (EHS-Net) in the area of food-borne illness
outbreak prevention. For more information about EHS-Net, go to
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/EHSNet.
EHSNIS is also available for use by government agencies and
nonprofit organizations to support their data collection needs
relating to environmental health. We anticipate expanding use of
EHSNIS to support improved environmental public health studies
in a number of areas, namely air, food, land, waste, and water.
EHSNIS users may independently design data collection
instruments to achieve their data collection and analysis
objectives in those areas. However, CDC staff must review and
clear each data collection instrument before its use in EHSNIS
to ensure continuing compliance with security, data privacy, and
other federal mandates. Organizations such as the National
Environmental Health Association, East Oklahoma State
University, and the Uniformed Services Environmental Health
Association have used the system.
EHSNIS Use
EHS-Net participants and EHSNIS users load NCEH EHS-approved
data collection instruments into EHSNIS. Responses are submitted
to CDC via the Internet. EHS-Net participants and EHSNIS users
can download the data into a comma-separated value file for
analysis using analytic software packages (e.g., SAS, SPSS,
Microsoft Excel).
EHSNIS supports two methods of data collection:
- Interview or observation—collecting data in the field;
- Internet survey—sending invitations by e-mail to a target
audience, with a URL and code for EHSNIS access; EHSNIS supports
anonymous and non-anonymous survey designs.
Contact Information
If you would like to use EHSNIS for your data collection
activities, contact us by e-mail (ehsb@cdc.gov)
or phone (770-488-7476).
This information is also available in
fact sheet format.