Smart Use of State Public Health Data for Health Disparity Assessment

Disparities represent a lack of efficiency within the healthcare system and therefore account for unnecessary costs. With the affirmation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, reducing health disparities through enhanced public health data infrastructure and analytical capability has become essential for healthcare practitioners. This book explains how to maximize the use of various datasets from state health departments for assessing health disparity and for disease prevention. The authors offer practical advice on state public health data use, their strengths and weaknesses, data management insight, and lessons learned.

Ge Lin is a professor of epidemiology in the School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is trained in spatial demography and geographic information systems. He is known for his work in spatial modeling, spatial statistics for count data, and spatial disparities in health. His most recent research focuses on the science of public health data. He uses the infrastructure approach to develop integrated data marts, data analysis utilities, and training modules for public health data specialists. He has been supported by several national and state organizations, including the National Institutes of Health. Ming Qu is administrator of the Epidemiology and Informatics Unit, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NEDHHS), which provides statistical, epidemiological, and geographic information services that support public health actions and policies. He previously was an injury epidemiologist and Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System administrator for the NDHHS, where he was instrumental in the development of the Nebraska Injury Surveillance System. Dr. Qu supervises functions of professionals and disease and injury surveillance, data collection and quality assurance, data analysis and reporting, data system development and evaluation. He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters.

Enhanced Public Health Program Collaboration through Data Integration. Common Population-Based Health Disparity Dimensions. Common Public Health Data in a State Health Department. Data Linkage to Gain Additional Information. Indexing Multiple Datasets: A Bottom-Up Approach to Data Warehousing. Using GIS for Data Integration and Surveillance. Methodological Preparation for Health Disparity Assessment. SES Disparities in Hospitalization. Sex Disparities in Hospitalization. Rural-Urban Disparities in Hospitalization. Racial Disparities in Hospitalization. Using Emergency Department Data to Conduct Surveillance. Linking Cancer Registry Data to Hospital Discharge Data. Mother Index and Its Applications. Assessing and Managing Geocoding of Cancer Registry Data. Sex Difference in Stroke Mortality. Model Outcomes of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) by Residence and Hospital Locations. Disparities in Motor Vehicle Crash Injuries: From Race to Neighborhood. Linking Cancer Screening and Cancer Registry Data for Outcome Assessments. Linking Environmental Variables to Parkinson's Disease.