Data Linkage Demonstration Project
| Grantee: | New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Jerald A. Fagliano, MPH, PhD |
| Telephone: | 609-588-3120 |
| E-mail: | Jerald.Fagliano@doh.state.nj.us |
| Address: | New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health PO Box 369 Trenton, NJ 08625-0369 |
| Web site: |
http://www.state.nj.us/health/ eoh/cehsweb/env_disease.htm [external link] |
| Funded Since: | September 15, 2003 |
| Funded Program: | Environmental and Health Effect Tracking; Program Announcement #3074 |
Program Description:
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) will demonstrate and evaluate methods for linking data from existing health effects surveillance systems and environmental hazard monitoring systems. The New Jersey tracking project will be developed and implemented in cooperation with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure compatibility with the developing National Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Network.
Methods, tools, and best practices developed through the New Jersey project will be used to advance the development of an EPHT network at the state, local and national levels.
The specific goals of this project are to:
- Establish mechanisms for ongoing collaboration, communication and
coordination of activities. NJDHSS and the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection (NJDEP) will establish an interagency
coordinating committee and a tracking advisory group of stakeholders.
The interagency coordinating committee will provide a forum for
participating agencies to describe the status of demonstration
projects and discuss technical aspects of their protocol development
and implementation, communication of findings, and the evaluation of
the projects. The tracking advisory group will provide a forum for
NJDHSS and NJDEP to communicate with non-government and community
stakeholders; describe the status of the demonstration projects;
request input into technical aspects of protocol development and
implementation; and discuss methods for communicating findings of the
demonstration projects to the general public, health-care providers,
and other targeted groups.
- Conduct three demonstration projects to link data from existing
health effects, human exposure, and environmental hazard monitoring
systems. Specifically, the three projects will link (1) data from the
State Cancer Registry on pediatric and other cancers with short
latency periods with drinking-water-contamination and
air-toxics-modeling data; (2) childhood blood lead data and adult
heavy-metal-exposure data with New Jersey’s Facility and Chemical
Tracking System and modeled ambient-air exposure estimates for lead;
and (3) adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes data from the
State Birth Defects Registry, Vital Statistics, and other sources with
drinking water contamination and air toxics data. The aims of each
demonstration project are to increase the State’s capacity to use
existing data and to enable officials to take actions that are
data-driven and can ultimately improve public health in New Jersey
populations. The projects will combine health surveillance and
environmental hazard monitoring systems representing diverse
programmatic areas of NJDHSS and NJDEP. By including several data
systems in the demonstration projects, NJDHSS and NJDEP will identify
and address a range of challenges encountered in establishing an EPHT
program.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the data linkage demonstration projects in providing important and relevant information to public health and environmental decision makers. Findings of the demonstration projects, and the results of the evaluation, will be widely disseminated to stakeholders.
