Funded Program:
National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Part B

Program Description:

Illinois proposes to establish an enhanced environmental public health tracking network (EPHTN) system to address the information gap in documenting possible links between environmental hazards and chronic diseases and to relate and report health effects data with environmental data.

The establishment of an enhanced EPHTN is a three-year project by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) in collaboration with other state agencies, organizations, and local communities. The goals are to assess needs, plan for staged development of a standards-based EPHTN, implement and evaluate a demonstration pilot project on data linkage and reporting, communicate and disseminate information, and collaborate with partners and stakeholders. To accomplish these goals, 24 specific and time-referenced objectives have been established. These include conducting inventory of existing surveillance and monitoring systems, describing the information infrastructure, reviewing and modifying statutes and regulations, identifying gaps in data collection and analyses, establishing partnership with stakeholders and key players, incorporating input from partners, collaborating with the Centers for Excellence, setting and incorporating standards, establishing communication and dissemination format and routines, and evaluating the performance of the tracking system and using the result to guide its further development.

IDPH is developing a National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS)-based system for reporting infectious diseases using the Internet. The environmental hazards system would build on this model and lessons learned from this experience. In Illinois, five state agencies - IDPH, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (IDNS), the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA) - collect data on environmental hazards. The Illinois Health and Hazardous Substances Registry, an outcomes registry, was created in 1984 with a robust capacity to include components of a cancer registry, a birth defects registry, and adult blood lead exposure registry. The current proposal would enable IDPH to add a hazardous toxic substance registry. Existing data systems are on various platforms (mainframe, server and personal computer) and use a variety of languages that were popular when the systems were created. Until a comprehensive inventory is completed, IDPH cannot recommend hardware and software for the new system, except that they will be compliant with the NEDSS model.

Collaborations within and across state agencies and other organizations are in place, including the IEPA. IDPH will provide both epidemiologic and environmental expertise and leadership to ensure project integration and compatibility within divisions of IDPH and across state agencies and organizations.