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CDC Assessment Initiative
Accessing, interpreting, and communicating information to guide public health decision making
What is the CDC Assessment Initiative?
Beginning in 1992 and now in its third 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 is used to provide information for public health decisions and policy.
Through the Assessment Initiative, funded states work together with local health jurisdictions and communities to improve
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Access to data,
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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 supports work in two main focus areas:
- Community health assessment practice. 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.
- Data dissemination systems. Implementation of electronic systems for user-friendly analysis and dissemination of public health data (i.e. Internet-based interactive data query systems) and evaluation of the effect of these systems on primary users.
The Assessment Initiative serves as a "test-bed" for developing new methodologies and promising practices in these areas. CDC disseminates the outcomes of this work to the larger public health community through this web site, its annual conference, and other activities.
Fifteen states have been funded through the Assessment Initiative. They include Florida, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and Washington. |
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