 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Holly A DeBlois, MS, NH Institute for Health Policy and Practice, University of New Hampshire, 103 Pettee Hall, Durham, NH 03824, (603) 862-1128, hdeblois@unh.edu, Jennifer Taylor, MPH, Office of COmmunity and Public Health, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics, 6 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH 03301-6527, and Dorothy A. Bazos, PhD, Health Science Specialist, Veterans Administration, 215 North Main Street, White River Junction, VT 05009-0001.
Background: Gathering and analyzing data is the first step of the community health improvement process. Acquiring and manipulating data to develop community assessments is challenging for NH communities. NH has an underdeveloped local public health infrastructure and an underfunded state infrastructure. Purpose: The goals of the Empowering Communities with Data Project—a collaborative effort among a state university, the state department of health and human services, a community health institute, nine state-wide organizations, and 14 community networks; included gathering community input about 1) the development of a sub-state level data system and 2) data-related training needs. Methods: The process for obtaining community input included: structured in-person interviews, community forums, and a survey. Results: Thirteen in-person interviews with 20 participants across the state were conducted. State-wide, ten community forums attended by 141 people were held and 102 completed surveys received. NH communities desire a web-based query system with the capacity to produce static profiles for different geographic aggregations and perform customized data queries. Training needs were identified and prioritized. Communities preferred using web and distance-based learning technologies to receive trainings. In response to community frustration with locating data, the collaborative created a web-based inventory of NH public health data. Conclusions: Community participation was key to building consensus and advocacy for the development of a sub-state data system and accompanying training plan. We believe strong community buy-in resulted in our ability to obtain implementation dollars ($527,000) and in-kind support ($268,000) for development of this data system and training.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community Involvement, Data/Surveillance
Related Web page: www.nhhealthdata.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.