Category B: Outbreak analysts at State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial health departments - This project seeks to strengthen capacity for outbreak analytics at State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial public health departments, especially among rural, tribal, and less-resourced jurisdictions. The project will expand access to high-quality training and support for the free software R, which has recently emerged as the analytic tool of choice in public health. R offers a wide range of capabilities that are highly aligned with routine public health analytics tasks. Applied Epi is a US-registered nonprofit organization and the leading provider of R training and 24/7 R Support Desk services to public health agencies nationwide and globally. Applied Epi developed the free Epidemiologist R Handbook which is used by 750,000 people worldwide (4,000 daily views), and has delivered its synchronous, virtual R training courses to 1,500 epidemiologists and public health practitioners at 350 agencies since 2022, including 65 STLT agencies across all 10 HHS regions. Applied Epi will enroll teams of outbreak analysts at selected STLT agencies into a series of R courses. The courses are synchronous, virtual, and include unlimited 1-on-1 tutoring available 24/7 due to Applied Epi’s global network of 75 instructors. Over the 5 year period, approximately 500 individuals will complete the 40-hour introductory course. Eligible graduates will enroll in a series of advanced courses and gain access to Applied Epi’s 24/7 R Support Desk which provides timely troubleshooting for outbreak analytics. All participants will be incorporated into Applied Epi’s Community Forum to share best practices and receive free coding assistance. In the short-term, the project will increase local capacity for outbreak analytics and efficient, reproducible data management and analytical workflows. The follow-up Support Desk ensures that the trained public health workforce can effectively implement the tool into their routine work. The strengthened outbreak analytics and R skills imparted by this project will lead to more efficient, accurate, and evidence-based decision-making during public health emergencies. In the longer-term, widespread R adoption enables a free, high-quality analytical tool to become the standard, which will increase interagency collaboration. Especially among less-resourced jurisdictions, access to high-quality training in this free software will ultimately relieve financial pressures, enable more complex analysis of health disparities, and promote equity and skill parity between the nation’s diverse health departments.
