• Case Definitions for Public Health Surveillance - This CDC document provides case definitions for use by health-care providers, laboratories, and other public health personnel who report the occurrences of notifiable diseases to state and local health departments.

• Finding and Using Health Statistics: A Self-Study Course – The National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) of the National Library of Medicine has added this distance learning program to its website. This course will provide librarians, health services researchers, and public health professionals with some basic concepts for understanding health statistics, as well as pointing to some invaluable Internet portals.

• AHRQ National Resource Center for Health Information Technology – Developed to help the health care community make the leap into the Information Age. In addition to providing technical assistance, the National Resource Center shares new knowledge and findings that have the potential to transform everyday clinical practice.

• Massachusetts Health Data Consortium – The Consortium works with hospitals, government planners, employers, purchasers, labor, HMOs, insurers and academic researchers to produce reports relating to: the health status of the population, marketing and planning of health services, the socioeconomic characteristics of the population, community needs, health facilities, services and manpower, and private and public sector health insurance plans. A good resource for health data tools and reports and information on health data standards issues.

• MCH Analytic Skills Online – A cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration. Located at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, Center for the Advancement of Distance Education, the project uses internet-based technologies to develop and disseminate analytic skills training for maternal and child health (MCH) and children with special health care needs professionals.

• National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) – The NHII is: an initiative set forth to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and overall quality of health and health care in the United States; a comprehensive knowledge-based network of interoperable systems of clinical, public health, and personal health information that would improve decision-making by making health information available when and where it is needed; the set of technologies, standards, applications, systems, values, and laws that support all facets of individual health, health care, and public health; and finally, it is voluntary and not a centralized database of medical records or a government regulation.

• A Primer on Collaborating with Medicaid Agencies and Using Medicaid Data in Efforts to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health

• Privacy Toolkit for Public Health Professionals (PRISM) - The PRISM privacy tool provides state and local government health programs, and public health departments and programs in particular, with a convenient and useful way to understand the basic legal privacy requirements for identifiable health information use and disclosure.

• Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) – The Consortium is a coalition of organizations committed to the promotion of data standards for public health and for health services research through the collaboration of state, federal, and private sector organizations. The PHDSC has launched a Web-based Resource Center at http://phdsc.org to expand educational resources, inform stakeholders, and organize public health data standardization efforts. Visit this site for information on HIPAA, HL7, XML, and other standards and standards-related efforts that affect day-to-day public health challenges.

• Public Health Information Network (PHIN) – The CDC Public Health Information Network is a national initiative to improve the capacity of public health to use and exchange information electronically by promoting the use of standards, defining functional and technical requirements. PHIN strives to improve public health by enhancing research and practice through best practices related to efficient, effective, and interoperable public health information systems.

• Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System (CDC) – The world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984.  BRFSS provides state-specific information about issues such as asthma, diabetes, health care access, alcohol use, hypertension, obesity, cancer screening, nutrition and physical activity, tobacco use, and more.

• CDC WONDER - A single point of access to a variety of CDC reports, guidelines, and numeric public health data, this site provides links to over 70 text-based and numeric databases. At several of the linked sites users can request data for diseases and demographic groups by submitting ad hoc queries against available datasets. CDC WONDER also provides free-text search facilities and document retrieval from several bibliographic databases. For more information regarding CDC databases, visit the CDC Data and Statistics page.
   
• Child Trends DataBank – This resource includes the latest national trends and research on over 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being including: continuously updated trend data with the latest national estimates for all indicators; plain language reporting on trends and population subgroup differences informed by existing research; color graphics and tables that can be downloaded directly into reports and presentations; PDF files for each indicator containing text, graphics, and tables in a concise and attractive format; and links that provide organized access to additional information available for each indicator.

• Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) – Includes 3,082 reports of health status indicators, one for each county in the nation.

• Data Resource Center (DRC) for Child and Adolescent Health – An easy-to-use public website that eliminates barriers and reduces time and resources needed to obtain key findings on the health and health care of children, youth, and families. The DRC includes standardized indicators from the two most recent and extensive state-based surveys on the health and health care of children, youth, and families - The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) and The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). These indicators are available for you to search and compare by subgroups such as age, race/ethnicity, income, and health status.  
   
• Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP) - This family of health care databases and related software tools and products was developed developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sponsors HCUP, and their fact sheet summarizes available resources. HCUP includes State Inpatient Databases (SID); State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD); State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD); Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS); and Kids' Inpatient Database (KID).

• Health Services and Sciences Research Resources (HSRR) – A public health systems research (PHSR) search utility database located at the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)/National Library of Medicine site that helps researchers find datasets, instruments/indices, and software to assist in conducting PHSR. The University of Kentucky College of Public Health developed this searchable PHSR database in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and sponsorship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Records describe data available from public health organizations and programs such as the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile of Local Health Departments and National Public Health Performance Standards Program dataset.

• Injury Databases & Published Statistics - The Injury Control Resource Information Network is sponsored by the Center for Injury Research & Control at the University of Pittsburgh. It includes annotated links to injury mortality databases, injury hospital discharge databases, emergency department databases, transportation databases, occupational injuries databases, crime databases, demographics databases, mapping (GIS) databases, administrative (hospital and agency listings) databases, and a coroner database. Also included are injury data publications links.
   
• Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) - Reports include data for nationally notifiable diseases reported by the 50 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.

• National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): Surveys and Data Collection Systems – NCHS has two major types of data systems: systems based on populations, containing data collected through personal interviews or examinations; and systems based on records, containing data collected from vital and medical records. It includes the following major surveys, systems, and studies: National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Health Care Survey, National Vital Statistics System (data files and surveys), National Survey of Family Growth, National Immunization Survey, The Longitudinal Studies of Aging (LSOAs), and the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey. Associated surveys are included under some of the major survey headings.

• Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce: Health Data Tools and Statistics - A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries, this National Library of Medicine site offers comprehensive links to health statistics and data sets as well as resources to support data collection. Included are links to national, state, and local data related to health status, preparedness, public health infrastructure, and public health systems. Also available are tools for data collection and planning.

• PeriStats – An interactive perinatal data resource from the March of Dimes. Search for free US, state, county, and city maternal & infant health data. Over 60,000 graphs, maps and tables available.

• The Public Health Workforce Enumeration 2000 - A free 301 page report published by HRSA (NOTE: 1,668 K LARGE FILE). Also available by calling 1-888-ASK-HRSA (Publication # BHP00079)

• Quick Health Data Online - This Department of Health and Human Services site offers data for women and men regarding a variety of infectious and chronic diseases, mental health, reproductive health, maternal health, violence and abuse, illness prevention, mortality, and access to care indicators. National, regional, state, and county data are available, and data can be stratified by gender, race/ethnicity, and age concurrently. Users can make their own tables, graphs, and maps out of any data in the database. Age-adjusted rates and 3-year averages are included for many of the health status indicators.

• State Health Facts Online - Searchable state heath data comparisons and individual state profiles for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Includes state demographic data and indicators in areas such as demographics and the economy, health status, health coverage and uninsured , Medicaid and SCHIP, health costs and budgets, Medicare, managed care and health insurance, providers and service use, minority health, women's health, and HIV/AIDS. The site is a Kaiser Family Foundation product.

• StatePublicHealth.org – A product of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and ASTHO affiliates designed to facilitate the dissemination of basic state-based public health information. Users can search all state health agency web sites by keyword, or query state health agency profiles on topics such as agency responsibilities, governance, and required qualifications of officials.
  The site includes annotated resource links for state health agencies.
 
• TOXNET (Toxicology Data Network) - Developed by the National Library of Medicine's Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program, this is a compilation of databases related to toxicology and environmental health. The databases accessible via TOXNET include HSDB (Hazardous Substances Data Bank), TOXLINE (Toxicology Literature OnLINE), CCRIS (Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System), GENE-TOX, IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System), DART (Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology), ChemIDplus - Dictionary of over 370,000 chemicals, ITER (International Toxicity Estimates for Risk), LactMed (Drugs and Lactation Database) Haz-Map - Information on Hazardous Chemicals and Occupational Diseases, Household Products - Health and Safety Information on Household Products, TOXMAP - Environmental Health e-Maps, and TRI (Toxic Chemical Release Inventory).

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Updated 11-25-07