Building a Regional Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

BACKGROUND:  The CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program supports states, territories and cities to collect environmental and health outcome data to effectively prevent or control diseases possibly linked to hazards in the environment.  States can use this data to track environmental exposures and health outcomes over time within their jurisdictions or across regions. The District of Columbia (DC) and Maryland have developed a partnership to share data and information technology (IT) resources to analyze trends in environmental health across the Washington, DC Metro Area. The objective of this project is to provide access to environmental and health information to support research and improve the health of communities within the region.

METHODS: The Maryland Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (EPHTN) has developed an administrative tool to allow data from an external source to be loaded into the Maryland EPHTN.  A user ID and password were created and the system specifically configured, so it provides the capability for DC and any neighboring states to load their environmental public health data to the Maryland EPHTN to form a regional network.  A DC EPHTN Portal is being created for DC with DC - specific data and all of the functionality of the Maryland EPHTN, including both a public and secure portal.  In addition, there is the prospect of allowing both authorized DC and Maryland users to view all of the merged data in the network, which would address the challenging problem of cross-border hospitalization data and vital events. 

RESULTS:  The DC EPHT Program can now upload data into the EPHTN using the newly created data up-loader. The DC EPHTP can track various key indicators as described in CDC’s Nationally Consistent Data and Measures (NCDMs). For this demonstration project, the key indicators selected were hospitalizations for asthma and myocardial infarction; ozone and particulate matter hazards.  Each year, additional core tracking health and exposure and environmental measures based on the recommendations of the content workgroup will be added.  Challenges in further developing this system in the future include lack of a fully established DC EPHT program and funding. Sustaining this important service would involve adopting strategies to engage in creative funding and staffing, and working collaboratively with external agencies and other DC DOH programs.

CONCLUSIONS: This is a cost-effective model of a successful collaboration between two jurisdictions for data sharing and a demonstration of how to establish a regional tracking system that could be replicated nationally.