Infrastructure Enhancement and Data Linkage
Demonstration Project
| Grantee: | New York State Department of Health |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Nancy K. Kim, PhD |
| Telephone: | 518-402-7511 |
| E-mail: | nkk01@health.state.ny.us |
| Address: | Division of Environmental Health Assessment New York State Department of Health 547 River Street, Room 500 Troy, NY 12180 |
| Web site: | http://www.health.state.ny.us/ [external link] |
| Funded Since: | September 30, 2002 |
| Funded Program: | National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Part B |
Program Description:
New York State proposes to develop plans to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of linking and reporting of health effects data with human exposure data and environmental hazard data. Required program activities include: developing partnerships with individuals and organizations who are important to the development and implementation of an environmental public health tracking network (EPHTN); establishing a planning consortium; examining current legislation and regulations regarding collection, integration, and sharing of data; and developing and providing training to state and local staff in a variety of areas related to environmental public health tracking.
The first programmatic goal is to enhance the state’s capability to track children’s environmental health, specifically to assess the relation between air pollution and pregnancy outcomes, asthma development, and childhood mortality. As part of this project, the grantee will link New York State Department of Health’s Integrated Child Health Information System (ICHIS) with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s air monitoring system. The project will be evaluated, and its results will be used to guide decisions about what other hazard or exposure databases should be linked to ICHIS or how this database can be used to assess other health endpoints potentially related to environmental contamination. These lessons will be extended to guide or modify a plan for establishing an EPHTN.
The second and third programmatic goals are to enhance the state’s capability for tracking exposures to contaminants in drinking water and to enhance our capability to track neurologic conditions, autoimmune diseases, developmental disabilities, diabetes, and chronic diseases other than reproductive outcomes, cancer, and asthma. These two areas need additional development before the grantee can readily track and link these data.
New York State will prioritize state and local needs for tracking health effects, exposures, and hazards with the goal of incorporating them into an EPHTN. This will be done in conjunction with partners and a planning consortium. State and local legislation and regulations will be reviewed to determine whether additional authority is needed to integrate, share, or collect new data.
New York proposes to develop strategies for communicating information generated by the EPHTN network with the public, local, and federal governments, tribal governments, healthcare providers, non-governmental organizations, and other for-profit and nonprofit groups in a timely manner for use in public health practice or environmental protection programs. The state also will work with the Centers of Excellence in New York for EPHT to (1) develop training tools and deliver training in surveillance practices, environmental assessment, biomonitoring, evaluation, and risk communication to state and local staff, and (2) evaluate environmental public health indicators.
Data Linkage Demonstration Project
| Grantee: | New York State Department of Health |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Nancy K. Kim, PhD |
| Telephone: | 518-402-7511 |
| E-mail: | nkk01@health.state.ny.us |
| Address: | Division of Environmental Health Assessment New York State Department of Health 547 River Street, Room 500 Troy, NY 12180 |
| Funded Since: | September 15, 2003 |
| Funded Program: | Environmental and Health Effect Tracking; Program Announcement #3074 |
Program Description:
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) will link public water supply monitoring data to birth outcome data, geographically by water district, in public water supply service areas. This tracking project will be coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure compatibility with the developing National Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Network.
The overall purpose of the effort is to demonstrate and evaluate methods for linking data from existing health effects surveillance systems with data from existing human exposure and environmental hazards surveillance/monitoring systems in New York. Methods, tools, and best practices developed through the project will be used in advancing the development of an EPHT network at the state, local and national levels.
The project’s specific goal is to link hazard data from routine public water supply monitoring with birth outcome data in order to track potentially related patterns and trends in contamination with disinfection byproducts, such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, and birth outcomes. Geographic boundaries have been digitized for all districts serving more than 1,000 people and for some smaller districts. Approximately 87% of New York State's population is included in a geographically defined water district. The monitoring locations have been geocoded, and the birth outcome data will be geocoded to each infant's address at birth, using a newly implemented enterprise geocoding system. Birth outcome data will be supplied by the NYSDOH Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR) and the Vital Records Section of the Bureau of Biometrics. The birth outcomes of particular interest will include low birth weight, prematurity, and selected birth defects.
In addition to the data linkage and geocoding activities, the project includes the following objectives:
- Development of an automated surveillance system to detect and report
statistically unusual patterns and trends. The system also will be
capable of visually representing the data in the form of graphs, maps,
and tables. Data will be rapidly analyzed as they are received. The
output from this surveillance system will aid in the definition and
prioritization of potential intervention strategies, including public
communication and/or focused epidemiologic studies. The data linkage and
surveillance system will be evaluated in terms of utility, quality,
cost-effectiveness, and propriety.
- Communication and dissemination of information about the project and
its findings, through website postings, public meetings, publication of
research articles, and similar means.
- Enhancement of existing electronic reporting and data linkage initiatives for both CMR and public water supply data. In particular, this project will help the CMR develop automated methods to link its data to hospital discharge data to improve data completeness and accuracy, as well as to further develop methods to identify areas of possible underreporting. Similarly, public water supply data systems will be enhanced by further implementing electronic data interfaces.
In addition, New York City is funded for (1) planning and capacity building activities, and (2) a data linkage demonstration project in environmental public health tracking. A description of the city's activities is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/tracking/projects/contacts/nyc.htm.
