Epi Capacity in Health Departments: A Skilled Epi Workforce is Just the Beginning

BACKGROUND:  

“Epi capacity” is commonly understood to focus on the size and competency of the epidemiology workforce. We propose that in addition to the number and skills of epidemiologists, organizational epi capacity encompasses the tools, services, and resources required to conduct the work as well as the multi-disciplinary workforce to support the work and translate it into a form that is valuable and useful to decision makers.  If any of these factors is missing, organizational epidemiology capacity will be lacking.

METHODS:  

Epidemiologists must have access to the tools, services, and resources that are needed to develop and create the informational products that can drive decision making (Table).  Tools might include software for data collection, analysis and reporting; cost calculators for estimating the economic impact of diseases and potential interventions; and, data visualization and publishing tools to describe findings and generate reports. Epidemiologists must have access to local data that provide the foundation for the essential services of public health.  These data include risk factor surveillance, morbidity, mortality, administrative data, and a growing list of clinical data sources. Epidemiologist must also have access to services and experts that support epidemiologic sciences such as assistance with searching literature and other scientific databases, statistical consultations, and analytic data management for complex data sources such as electronic health record databases.  Access to data collection and analysis standards, such as guidance on conducting community health assessments and standards for data coding and measurement, improve the quality and comparability of epidemiological work. Translation of epidemiology findings into forms that can be readily understood by decision-makers, both within and outside of the health department, is essential for making epi-based products useful. A “translation service”, such as that provided by public information officers, can assist with the translation of statistical results, for example, into content that is readily accessible and meaningful to a busy decision-maker.  Further, information for decision makers can be made more actionable when tied to evidenced-based recommendations about what works.  CDC Vital Signs and The Community Guide are two resources that epidemiologists can use to describe their science in terms easily understood and link their science to potential solutions at the local level. 

RESULTS:  

Table listing Tools, Services and Resources

CONCLUSIONS:

Epi capacity is more than a skilled epi workforce; it encompasses the tools, services and resources used by epidemiologists to put science to work to improve public health decision making.