Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Modernizing Environmental Public Health Tracking to Advance Environmental Health Surveillance in Wisconsin - As a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (CDC Tracking) recipient since 2002, Wisconsin Environmental Public Health Tracking (WEPHT), within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), has compiled and provided access to environmental health data for public benefit. During the past 20 years, WEPHT has maintained its commitment to environmental public health tracking and has established key partnerships; implemented a comprehensive public data portal with 22 topics at state, county and sub-county levels; disseminated data to multiple partners and the public; actively participated in content workgroups; and provided high-quality data to CDC Tracking. WEPHT has collaborated with local and tribal health departments (LTHDs) to address community-level environmental health issues and prompted public health improvements through our mini-grants project. Our program continues to expand partnerships with diverse public and private organizations and maintains strong collaborations within DHS to leverage programmatic and technology resources. WEPHT’s solid infrastructure and rich partnerships position us for continued success. The strategies outlined in Components A, B, and C of this proposal provide a framework to enhance our surveillance efforts and accelerate data modernization to align with CDC Tracking objectives. WEPHT intends to (1) modernize our program’s existing data systems and public portal to streamline data collection and sharing; (2) bolster relationships and enhance collaboration with CDC Tracking, Wisconsin LTHDs, and other partners; (3) share data with stakeholders through improved communication tools and resources; and (4) perform systematic evaluations to ensure program success. These strategies will empower residents to make information-driven decisions to improve their health and ultimately reduce health disparities in Wisconsin. Through activities proposed in Component A, WEPHT will continue to develop its programmatic infrastructure and use its surveillance expertise to enhance surveillance of health disparities. We will build upon our successful Taking Action with Data mini-grants to increase LTHD capacity to use portal data and address local environmental health issues. We will enhance our carbon monoxide poisoning surveillance system by implementing electronic case reporting and transfer of data to CDC. Transitioning our County Environmental Health Profiles to an interactive Tableau dashboard will result in improved functionality and data that are easily accessed by stakeholders for analysis and collaboration. We will increase dissemination of environmental health information using communication best practices, focusing on populations at higher risk for health disparities. Through a mentoring relationship with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center, we will enhance our partnership with Wisconsin’s tribal communities. In Component B, we propose innovative strategies for addressing emerging environmental health topics. Our evaluation project will identify and address the environmental health data needs of Wisconsin’s tribal communities. We also propose using syndromic surveillance data to capture heat-related illnesses and health outcomes related to flooding events to expand climate and health surveillance. We will enhance surveillance of private well water testing data through a project with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, LTHDs, and laboratories. With DHS’s focus on data modernization during the past year, WEPHT will leverage existing resources to transition our data portal to a new and modernized platform offering streamlined accessibility and enhanced visualization, timeliness, and data quality, as proposed in Component C. The strategies proposed in this application will empower residents to make information-driven decisions to improve their health and ultimately reduce health disparities in Wisconsin.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).