title: Advancing health and environmental disease tracking: a 5-year follow-up study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to gain an understanding of the extent to which environmental public health tracking (EPHT) has progressed since the release of the 2000 Pew Environmental Health Commission report examining the nation's EPHT infrastructure.
  
  
  METHODS
  As a follow-up to the Pew Commission report, we conducted a telephone survey of state practitioners in an effort to assess EPHT trends and changes in state-level capacities and activities over the past several years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that new and enhanced federal-state partnerships; improved surveillance, data analysis, and communication capacities; and enhanced support of tracking personnel have provided a foundation for progress in the area of EPHT. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's support of EPHT has strengthened the national environmental public health infrastructure and capacity to track environmental hazards, exposures, and health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improved funding, data access, and translation of data to prevention activities are critical to sustaining progress in EPHT and developing the evidence base necessary for assessing the longer-term impacts and efficacy of EPHT and related environmental health improvements.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Colorado, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Denver, CO 80262, USA. jill.litt@uchsc.edu
authors.forename: Jill S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Litt
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wismann
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Resnick
authors.forename: Rebecca Smullin
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hano
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Burke
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees; D004190:Disasters; D004777:Environment; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D035082:Federal Government; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000639:trends; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006077:Government Agencies / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D040442:Public Health Informatics; D013219:State Government; D023481:Terrorism; D014481:United States