Graduate Student Internship Program

2009 Catalog of Internship Opportunities

Immunization Health Registry

Tarrant County Public Health
Epidemiology and Health Information Division, Fort Worth, TX
Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Agency Information

Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) serves a population of approximately 1.68 million and has been a valuable local resource in providing services to all Tarrant County residents aimed at promoting, achieving and maintaining a healthy standard of living. TCPH has 16 divisions with a dedicated staff of more than 300 public health professionals and annual funding resources totaling approximately $33 million. Various public health activities provided by TCPH are divided into three main categories – Community Health Promotion, Prevention and Public Health Practices, and Environmental Health and Disease Control. In addition, TCPH has a separate information technology division comprising of skilled hardware and software personnel. Noteworthy client services provided by TCPH include Breast & Cervical Cancer Screening, Cholesterol/Glucose Testing, Hepatitis B & C prevention programs, HIV/AIDS Preventive Medicine Clinical Services, Immunizations, Refugee Health Screening, Sexually Transmitted Diseases treatment and prevention, Travel Health Services, Tuberculosis (TB) elimination program, Vaccine Distribution and Women, Infants and Children Program.

The intern will be placed with the division of Epidemiology at TCPH. The division of Epidemiology and Health Information falls under the Prevention and Public Health Practices and is primarily responsible for monitoring the incidence and distribution of communicable, environmental, occupational and other dangerous diseases occurrences in the county’s populations, as well as factors determining their distribution. Through epidemiological assessment and timely response to these adverse events of diseases, the epidemiology division provides assurance of quality health service to the community. The main functions of Epidemiology and Health Information Division are to maintain accurate surveillance data on reportable diseases and other important public health issues, serve as liaison with the federal/state health departments and the local health community, serve as a resource and consultant to health organizations, providers, and educational institutions and to mobilize local, state, and federal resources, when necessary, to meet the health needs of individuals and high-risk groups while protecting the health of the community.

Purpose, goals, and objectives of internship

Purpose: To assess the immunization rates of Tarrant County public school children (1st grade) when they were 24 months of age.

Goals: Increase knowledge of public health by putting into practice some of the the ten essential services of public health.

Objectives

1. The student will create a database in which to put the immunization data that the school districts submit to Tarrant County Public Health.Create database of immunization data for 12 different Tarrant County Independent School Districts
2. Clean data for analysis
3. Analyze data to determine immunization rates of children at 24 months for such vaccines as DPT, Polio & MMR. This analysis will also include startification by other selected variables such as school district, city, and ZIP code depending on data availability.
4. Write a report documenting background, methodology, results and discussion of findings.

Data or analytic tasks and activities

Immunization data from 12 school districts in Tarrant County (see above objectives for more details).

Data or analytic skills required

• Knowledge of principals, methods, and procedures of epidemiology and descriptive data analysis
• Working knowledge of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and SPSS statistical software
• Ability to work both independently and in a team environment
• Ability to organize, plan, and prioritize work
• Must be a self-starter and take initiative to move project forward
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to interface well with others, including public health professionals and community stakeholders.

Supervisors

Primary: Anita Kurian, MBBS, DrPH., Division Manager and Chief Epidemiologist
Epidemiology and Health Information, Tarrant County Public Health

Secondary: Micky M. Moerbe, MPH, Biostatistician, Tarrant County Public Health

Internship begins

May (Summer 2009)

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