News and Resources from CDC, NACDD, and National Partners

From NACDD and CDC
New Request for Applications for GIS Training for State Health Departments

NACDD, in partnership with CDC and the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative at Rice University, is pleased to release the Request for Applications for the 2019-2020 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) State Training for the Surveillance of Heart Disease, Stroke, and Other Chronic Diseases. This GIS training is for staff working with State Health Department chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs.

Important Dates

• RFA Question and Answer Sessions: Monday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET and Wednesday, September 25 at 2:00 p.m. ET
• Application Due Date: October 28, 2019
• Notice of Award: November 21, 2019 

A list of eligible state health departments, dates for required meetings and trainings, and a Frequently Asked Questions document are posted on the NACDD GIS webpage.  

From NACDD, Public Health Informatics Institute and CDC
Opportunity to Join MENDS (Multi-state EHR-based Network for Disease Surveillance) EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community The MENDS/EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community will be co-led by NACDD and the Public Health Informatics Institute. It is a series of 60-minute, monthly calls and is intended for state and local public health departments and their potential data partners including clinical organizations and health information exchanges. The first call is Tuesday, October 22, from 3-4:00 p.m. ET.  The content and discussion of these calls will include both MENDS-specific topics as well as more foundational surveillance and data analytics topics.

The goals of the MENDS/EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community are to:

• Build public health capabilities to describe and advocate for the MENDS project and other EHR-based surveillance opportunities.
• Discuss critical implementation issues such as articulating the rationale, developing a compelling value proposition, securing executive sponsorship, developing effective and inclusive governance, using effective project management and change management methods, and identifying enablers and common barriers.
• Enable both synchronous and asynchronous peer-to-peer learning through webinars and discussion.
• Help NACDD to understand the challenges and opportunities for growth in EHR-based surveillance and project governance.

Who should participate?
The MENDS/EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community is intended for program and epidemiology staff in your chronic disease unit, as well as department-level epidemiologists and informaticists. Health system data partners might benefit from participating on certain calls.

Format of the MENDS/EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community
The MENDS/EHR-based Surveillance Learning Community calls will last 60 minutes. The first portion of the calls will be educational and focused on related topics critical to an EHR-based surveillance program design and implementation; the second portion will be a facilitated discussion and open Q&A. A full schedule of topics will be available following the October call. The agenda, slides and recording of the session will be posted on the NACDD MENDS website following the calls. 

When are the calls and what is the time commitment?
After the October 22 call, the