Mark Edberg, PhD¹, Kwasi Frye¹, Kristen Corey, MA¹, and Violet Ryo-Hwa Woo, MS, MPH². (1) Development Services Group, Inc. (DSG), 7315 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 800E, Bethesda, MD 20814, 301-951-0056, medberg@dsgonline.com, (2) Office of Minority Health/OPHS, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/OS, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) has contracted the Development Services Group to implement a Web-based uniform data set (UDS) for use across all of OMH's funded activities, including awarded grant and standard cooperative agreement programs ("Programs"). The UDS will improve evaluation of community-based health programs, improve program management, aid performance measurement and accountability required by the Government Results and Performance Act or GPRA, and improve identifying or monitoring the nature of progress with respect to racial and ethnic minority health. Reporting and analyzing the standardized data will also allow the identification of best practices and evaluation of effective approaches.

A core and module data set was developed that includes a core set of general descriptive data about each project and 19 individual activity modules. Programs routinely report data for only those activity categories that correspond to objectives and activities of their specific project. Community-based health programs are unique and often their critical accomplishments are not accounted for by traditional performance indicators. The UDS measures some quasi-qualitative results in order to capture some types of impacts that may not be reflected in the more quantitative data. This project will have important methodological implications to assess the impact of such community-based programs. The tool and preliminary results will be presented at the conference.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to understand and prioritize

• pertinence of automating and analyzing standardized data for funded activities;
• value of facilitating and improving program monitoring and accountability; and
• strategies to improve program evaluation, performance measurements and best practices.

Keywords: Reporting, Community Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Development Services Group, Inc. (DSG) and Office of Minority Health (OMH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/OS/OPHS
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.