The Initiative
Information technology and communication systems are vital to the delivery of public health services. The Iowa Public Health Standards* outline the Iowa Department of Public Health's responsibility for establishing and maintaining a data warehouse. This will result in:
- Improved public health decision making: Take advantage of high quality, accessible data and decision support tools.
- Healthier Iowans in healthier communities: Use data to perform thorough community health needs assessments and to create and implement impactful health improvement plans.
- Increased opportunities for funding: Use data to support grant applications and ensure secured funds are used on programs that provide the most value to Iowans.
- Better use of time and resources: Spend less time searching for data and more time using the data for value-added activities.
Stakeholders
Directly or indirectly, the data warehouse will support the missions, visions, and core functions of several groups:
- State and federal agencies
- Local public health practitioners
- Academic institutions and researchers
- Community partners and the general public
Development Partners
- IDPH Data Warehouse Team
- This team is comprised of the project coordinator, technical lead, database administrator/architect and support staff. The team drives the maintenance and progression of the data warehouse.
- External User Group
- This diverse group represents and expresses the data needs of persons external to the department. The group is comprised of the public, special interest group members, researchers, journalists, and undergraduate and graduate students.
Formally titled, the Lead User Group, the development of the data warehouse owes much to the efforts of representatives from public health departments in Black Hawk, Jefferson, Mills, Polk, Palo Alto, Scott, Wright, and Woodbury counties. Lead User Group members have helped identify and approve public health indicators to be included in the data warehouse, and guided the functionality and capabilities for reports and data retrieval.
- Oversight Committee
- The members of this committee are all internal IDPH employees. The group provides guidance and feedback to the coordinator and other DWH staff on major project initiatives. There are six standing appointments and six rotating appointments. The rotating appointments are intended to diversify the committee by choosing different specialization and subject areas over time.
Technical Information
The data warehouse was built on SQL Server. Access to the application is provided using SharePoint technology. SharePoint access is currently limited to basic users. Advanced users access the system through a database connection in Excel.
The data warehouse is not a transactional warehouse; rather, final data are loaded annually. The data warehouse does not contain provisional data. The data warehouse is constructed on the basis of public health events and does not allow for the tracking of a specific individual over time.
Data are available in four subject areas-Birth, death, statewide inpatient discharge, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The most recent census data is used to calculate rates and extrapolate data when missing. In addition, county snapshots provide brief glimpses into the health of counties throughout Iowa. These snapshots contain indicators with statistics for the county and the state.
