Strategy Six
Develop Resources to Support Integration of Data Modernization Activities into Chronic Disease Surveillance
Chronic disease modernization efforts should support the surveillance needs of chronic disease programs and partners. Bringing people together in communities of practice can help ensure the effective use of modernized data, tools, and analyses for improved chronic disease health outcomes.
Read more to learn about websites, resources, and tools that provide examples, trainings, and recommendations to support the development, stewardship and growth of communities of practice; resources that can help spark inspiration and standardize the way chronic disease programs use newly available data and tools; and case studies that exemplify how health departments integrate data modernization activities across public health domains.
Cultivating Communities of Practice
CSTE Learn
CSTE learn hosts a variety of courses, webinars, and trainings that allow the user to navigate based on topic of interest. Within, there are various opportunities to search for trainings, such as “Communities of Practice” or “Building Learning Communities.” Trainings and resources are added frequently; therefore, it’s best to visit often.
Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement, Communities (CSCCE) of Practice (CoP)
An online training example from CSCCE for scientific community managers to support the formation and/or strengthening of communities of practice.
National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP)
NSSP has an established CoP, which is a helpful example of a CoP cultivation. Members range from epidemiology newcomers to seasoned experts in public health surveillance across CDC programs, other federal agencies, partner organizations, hospitals, health care professionals, and academic institutions. Information about the CoP can be found here.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Peer Assessment Program
ASTHO’s Peer Assessment Program, offered through the ASTHO STAR Center, is a resource for advancing and supporting organizational capacity building and technical assistance. It is designed for state, territorial, and freely associated states’ public health agencies to assess and improve administrative processes and indicators to support the delivery of the ten essential public health services. While not a training, it is a helpful reference for opportunities and ways to cultivate and strengthen communities of practice.
Explore more communities of practice and collaboration opportunities by clicking here.
Analytic Tools
Public Health Data Science Community on GitHub
Public health professionals and organizations post their code repositories on GitHub. Searching the public health data science repositories for code snippets can connect you with relevant examples for chronic disease surveillance projects.
ASTHO's STAR Capacity Indicators Data Dictionary
A data dictionary of capacity indicators, providing a helpful guide to streamlining definitions and foundational concepts.
NORC-UChicago / MENDS
This Github repository, managed by NORC at the University of Chicago, documents processing and analytic steps for producing weighted chronic disease estimates in MENDS. NORC (the weighting and estimation vendors supporting MENDS) released annotated code files at various geographic levels (national, state, county, ZIP code) for priority MENDS indicators (e.g., hypertension). The repository will evolve to align with weighting and modeling methodology updates for MENDS. The code is in SAS.
CU-DBMI / MENDS-on-FHIR
This GitHub repository is a limited version of the transformation rules used in the production system, but the demo pipeline exercises all components used in MENDS. Synthetic data produced by the Synthea system has less complete vocabulary mappings than seen in the EHR-based production OMOP instance.
NACDD / MENDS-local-queries
This is a GitHub repository of validated queries and information for data users to reference when developing their own custom queries.
Data Dashboards
Pacific Data Hub’s MANA Dashboard
A regional tool of data visualizations used to assess better disease surveillance, indicators, and progress of policies to prevent noncommunicable diseases.
Arizona Department of Health Services Dashboards
The health department developed several data modernization dashboards before transitioning into new data warehousing. Each dashboard explores various elements of data governance, like storage, reporting, and a data gallery.
Wayne State University in Phoenix Dashboard Model
A website that enables users to export and maneuver data to explore various aspects of visualization. This tool is both interactive and community-forward, fostering participation and uptake among its users.
Maryland Department of Health Data Dashboards
The health department has several dashboards that create data visualizations and tandem communication messaging around findings. Data collected and exported for and from the dashboard are utilized for health communication messaging.
Learn more and check out the Foundational Concepts and Data Modernization Initiatives pages for more details on data modernization.
Toolkit Navigation
Foundational Concepts
Understand the core principles, key terminology, and initiatives grounding CSTE’s Chronic Disease Surveillance Data Modernization Strategic Plan
Implementation Actions and Strategies
Learn about the strategies and objectives outlined in CSTE’s Chronic Disease Surveillance Data Modernization Strategic Plan and explore tools for implementation
Implementation Stories
Draw from real-world examples of chronic disease surveillance across a range of jurisdictions with varying levels of experience and resources
Community and Collaboration
Identify and cultivate partnerships with other practitioners working on chronic disease surveillance modernization