Model Prototype

What's New A Guide for Public Health Agencies Developing, Adopting, or Purchasing Interactive Web-based Data Dissemination Systems - A practical tool for public health agencies to use in developing, adopting, or purchasing new queriable Web-based data systems, or enhancing existing systems; this document provides a consolidated list of processes, standards, and checklists resulting from work accomplished through a 3-year evaluation project.

The model prototype is a static system that replicates the kind of system a state may want to develop, adopt, or purchase. It demonstrates the best practices of a user-centered design process and the key features that are valued by the user community and its stakeholders. These best practices were identified through previous analyses (summarized in other reports posted on this Website). The prototype also provides online access to the information in the guidelines document (“Web-Based Systems for the Dissemination of Health-Related Data: A Guide for Public Health Agencies Developing, Adopting, or Purchasing Interactive Web-based Data Dissemination Systems”) to help direct administrators, project managers, developers, and designers. The prototype is to be used as a training tool and design model for developers and designers who are working toward completion of similar systems.

The system demonstrates three types of queries that correspond to three predominant target user groups:

• The general public, using the wizard query interface
• Public health practitioners, using the advanced query interface
• Researchers, using the download dataset interface

The queries are intended to provide guidance to system developers and to adoptersof purchased or previouslydeveloped systems. They also are designed to address the architecture and content that best assists users in constructing effective queries. The queries prototyped also demonstrate methods for users to understand the data they receive by providing metadata.

General Public

Members of the general public who use public health agency data dissemination systems are more likely to be legislators, legislative aides, or representatives of the media than residents of the state, county, or town served by the data system. They are more likely to want to access static HTML tables of statistical data or conduct simple queries than they are to use a complex query interface. They will need assistance to construct effective queries.

When members of the general public use data dissemination tools, they must be able to:

• Link to descriptive information on a disease or topic
• Find basic statistics in simple language (e.g., How many people die from a specific disease or cause each year? How many people get the disease each year in a specific area? Is the incidence of the disease proportionate by race or other factors?)
• Find out what groups are most affected by a disease or condition

Public Health Practitioners

Public health practitioners include state county and city health officials who need to look up information to do their day-to-day work. Members of this group usually have a bachelor's or a master's degree in public health. They may also have doctoral or medical degrees.

When public health practitioners use data dissemination tools, they must be able to:

• Run effective queries and produce tables and other output
• Print query results
• Save queries
• Retrieve old queries
• Compare data across counties/cities/communities
• Download datasets as Microsoft (MS) Excel, comma-delimited, or other data formats, or otherwise be able to manipulate data for reports

Research Community

The research community includes individuals at nonprofit, state and community public health organizations who need specific, detailed information on rates of disease in specific groups. They are likely to have advanced degrees in public health or similar fields.

When members of this user group use data dissemination tools, they must be able to:

• Run sophisticated queries (i.e., of six or more variables such as age, race, sex, ethnicity, year, disease/condition)
• Retrieve statistics, including weighted percentages and age-adjusted rates
• Compare data across counties/cities/communities
• Print tables or other results of queries
• Save datasets as MS Excel, comma-delimited, or other data formats, or otherwise be able to manipulate data for reports

Key Features Included in the Prototype

The features that are incorporated into static HTML pages are included in the screens. The prototype design attempts to demonstrate the following best practices and requirements:

Data

• Data in standard cross-tabular format to help design publication-quality output
• Ability to calculate age-adjusted rates (specifically, these static pages will show placement of the relevant controls for age-adjusted rates)
• Footnotes regarding state disclaimers and limitations of the data
• Data query manipulation by:
• Age group customization
• Row or column percents
• Confidence interval
• Customized leading cause tables
• Automatic usage logging
• Analysis of time trends for significance
• Present unknown values consistently in all tables to evaluate data reliability
• Metadata to support data selection and interpretation
• Pre-coded queries to answer commonly asked questions
• Multiple output formats from one query (e.g., creating both a table and a graph)

Validation

• Query parameters that prevent user errors
• Different ways to navigate through the system
• Links to an alphabetized list of health topics
• Search via coding schemes such as ICD numbers
• User feedback mechanisms
• Links to contact information set clearly on every page
• Graphs supported through the system and through MS Excel
• Online help system and manual set clearly on every page
• Minimal scrolling necessary
• Tabular format for queries
• Database content clearly described so users can determine its usefulness
• Flexibility for users to select age range and year variables
• Comparisons of geographic regions within the State
• Provide only one “submit” button per page, preferably at the bottom
• Provide a query summary prior to the processing of the query, so that users can verify the accuracy of the variables selected

Query Output

• Surrounding language and instructions for additional steps and options provided on the output page.
• Outputs downloadable in multiple formats, and clearly defined
  Several file formats possible, including:
• HTML
• Tab-delimited-ASCII with tabs separating entries

Help Section

• Help text written at a 6-8th-grade level (also called “readability”)

Three Query Paths

The queries included in this prototype correspond to the characteristics of the three identified major user groups. Queries represented in this prototype are broken out as:

Beginner (this is conceived of as the default querying mechanism)-This is a “wizard”-based query that will have a series of query pages aimed at users with the least amount of experience. This query is best suited to public users.

Complex-This query assumes the users have some statistical analysis ability. This query is designed with public health practitioners and intermediate users in mind.

Expert-This query assumes advanced knowledge of statistics and allows for the direct download of datasets, dataset manipulation, and more sophisticated analyses. This query is designed for researchers and other expert users.

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