Network Development for the Colorado Environmental Public Health Tracking Program

Background: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) was one of six new grantees to join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national environmental public health tracking network in August 2009. Under this funding, CDPHE will develop and deploy a state tracking system that integrates existing health and environmental data in a standardized format.

Objective: To expand and support efforts to provide both environmental and health county-level tracking data through web-based public and secure access-controlled portals and data gateways.

Methods: CDPHE is developing a web-based public tracking portal and a secure controlled access portal that build on existing state infrastructure. The project will expand and improve state and local environmental public health surveillance capacity through improved data linkage, display, and analysis, as well as communication of outcomes. This will allow Colorado to leverage the utility of existing surveillance datasets by adopting national standards and specifications for network implementation and system interoperability. It will also support development of data systems that enhance data quality and spatial resolution. Results: Progress towards the completion of detailed key objectives and associated activities for Year 1 planning efforts will be reported; notably, improvements in the accuracy of county hospital discharge data through geo-coding and an overview of existing web-based public and secure access-controlled portals.

Discussion: Topics to be discussed include a state's perspective on joining an established network, developing capacity, and moving towards implementation. CDPHE is uniquely situated to implement this network because public health and environment health programs are located in the same agency. This allows the Colorado environmental public health tracking project to strategically plan and collaborate between local partners, prioritize activities and allocate resources, develop strategies for implementation, and to support development of high-priority Colorado indicator data and measures.