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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

LuAnn Brink, PhD¹, Michael Wagner, MD¹, Evelyn Talbot, DrPH¹, Jo Ann Glad, RN, MPH², Jeanne Zborowski¹, Gerald Barron, MPH³, and Bruce W. Dixon, MD¹. (1) Graduate School of Public Health- Dept of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburg Academic Partner of Excellence in EPHT, 510 Parran Hall, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburg, PA 15261, 412-578-8345, lbrink@achd.net, (2) Environmental epidemiology, Allegheny County Health Department, 3333 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15228, (3) Deputy Director Operations, Allegheny County Health Department, 3333 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Public health agencies have a long-standing role in monitoring environmental pollutants as well as their potential health outcomes in an effort to protect the public health of communities. Having the infrastructure to implement a health information system with linkage between population-based exposures and health outcomes will enable health departments to identify and contain emerging health issues proactively. The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), in Pittsburgh, PA, together with our partners in this effort, the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), will use the Pitt-designed Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) Public Health Data Center as its hub for collecting and analyzing clinical and other surveillance data from the health department's local hospitals. While RODS receives and analyzes ED chief complaints, the proposed ACHD surveillance system will utilize the RODS framework, but will capture ED final diagnosis by ICD-9-CM code. The tradeoff is timeliness for preciseness. The ACHD system will lose the timeliness of the RODS effort, as our system will compile the final diagnosis code, which may not be issued for days after the ED visit. The ACHD surveillance system is not being used to detect outbreaks in real-time. The ACHD will utilize the information obtained through active surveillance to help quantify Allegheny County's reportable and non-reportable conditions. For example, the ACHD will capture the non-fatal injuries, animal bites, asthma, and autism diagnosed in Allegheny County. Through these linkages, we will try to further quantify the relationship between environmental triggers of asthma and incidence and/or exacerbations of this disease.

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

• Describe the role of a local health department in monitoring environmental pollutants
• Describe the difference between active and passive surveillance
• Discuss the use of chief complaint versus final diagnosis and the benefits of both in an active surveillance model

Keywords: Environmental Health, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation