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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Ron H. Graham, Stark County Health Department, Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health, 3969 Convenience Circle NW, Canton, OH 44718, (330) 493-9917 ext 109, jrinsky@asph.org

The feasibility study of describes the need, design, and best practice guidelines for the development of a local health department as a data warehouse. By developing the infrastructure to collect, monitor, and react to health status trends and data is very useful to the health and medical community as well as the public health industry. Surveillance is critical to determining the health status of a population and being able to proactively foresee public health problems or critical areas of need. A literature review was conducted to identify the strengths, weakness, and benefits to a centralized data warehouse at a county or city level. The study focused on identifying the current sources of data collected by a local health department(s), the ICD-9 coding related to chronic disease, and associated hospital based data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), HIPAA, and the hospital-based electronic medical records systems were studied for compatibility and query capabilities. Key health disease indicators were identified for initial collection and epidemiological analysis. The logistical business relationship between the hospitals, health departments, and the county auditor's office GIS department was documented and a business partner agreement form for data sharing was created. The study provided the necessary software, hardware, privacy protection, cost, and timelines for the development of a data warehouse integrated with GIS mapping and the utilization of a web-based interface for public data presentation. Best practice guidelines were developed by researching an existing city-based data warehouse and indicating areas of further research.

Learning Objectives:

• The participant should be able to;
• 1. Recognize the critical components of a data warehouse project and existing sources of state/county-level data.
• 2. Identify the limitations of HIPAA in data collection, analysis, and presentation.
• 3. Utilize best practice guidelines for business partner agreements, technological needs, logistical operation of a data warehouse, and data presentation methods.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Data/Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered