Tracking Fellowship Success

Submission Date: April 2015

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: Ohio

States/Territories Involved: Ohio

Funding Source: CDC

CDC Funding:

Yes

CDC Funding (Specified):

Other CDC Funding

Domain Addressed:

Epidemiology and Surveillance

Public Health Issue:

Cincinnati Data Not Readily Available to Residents and Officials

• Local level data give public health officials and residents the information they need to make informed decisions related to disease patterns, health conditions, and exposures to environmental hazards.
• Before Cincinnati joined the Tracking Fellowship Program, most of the Ohio environmental and health data available were for state or county level only. Very few data were readily accessible in one place.

Program Action:

• One of the first activities of the Cincinnati Health Department (CHD) Tracking Fellowship project was to form a work group. Members include the CHD Vital Records Department, the City of Cincinnati Information Technology Centers (now Enterprise Technology Solutions), and the Ohio Department of Health.
• New York City, an experienced Tracking Program grantee, mentored CHD staff. They helped the CHD educate the mayor, Cincinnati City Council, and local health leaders about the value of a well-developed tracking network.
• During the fellowship period, CHD worked on developing the IT infrastructure, training work group members, and forging strong relationships with state and local agencies.

Impact/Accomplishments:

Cincinnati Residents and Officials Now Have Improved Local Data Source

• After participating in the Tracking Fellowship Program a second time, Cincinnati now has online, searchable data about births for the city. It also offers fun facts, such as the most popular newborn names.
• In the future, they plan to expand their system’s capability to allow comparisons between maternal and child health data and chronic diseases within specific geographic areas of the city. This will allow users to study how health effects may be related to environmental hazard exposures.
• The overall goal of the city’s tracking program is to help ensure equity in health service delivery and health protection of the Cincinnati population.
• “I advise other cities building a local tracking network to start small, work with a narrow initial scope, and create a technical advisory committee to provide expertise on network development.” — Denisha Porter, Cincinnati Tracking Program Fellow project

Program Areas:

Epidemiology and Surveillance

State Contact Information:

OH
City of Cincinnati Health Department

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