title: Toward standardized, comparable public health systems data: a taxonomic description of essential public health work.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify taxonomy of task, knowledge, and resources for documenting the work performed in local health departments (LHDs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Secondary data were collected from documents describing public health (PH) practice produced by organizations representing the PH community.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multistep consensus-based method was used that included literature review, data extraction, expert opinion, focus group review, and pilot testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Terms and concepts were manually extracted from documents, consolidated, and evaluated for scope and sufficiency by researchers. An expert panel determined suitability of terms and a hierarchy for classifying them. This work was validated by practitioners and results pilot tested in two LHDs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The finalized taxonomy was applied to compare a national sample of 11 LHDs. Data were obtained from 1,064 of 1,267 (84 percent) of employees. Frequencies of tasks, knowledge, and resources constitute a profile of PH work. About 70 percent of the correlations between LHD pairs on tasks and knowledge were high (>0.7), suggesting between-department commonalities. On resources only 16 percent of correlations between LHD pairs were high, suggesting a source of performance variability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A taxonomy of PH work serves as a tool for comparative research and a framework for further development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, Vanderbilt Clinic, New York, NY 10034, USA. jacqueline.merrill@dbmi.columbia.edu
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keeling
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gebbie
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000145:classification*; D015980:Public Health Practice / Q000145:classification*; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013597:Systems Analysis; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014481:United States
references.citation: Medinfo. 1995;8 Pt 2:1368
references.pmid: 8591448
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 1999 May;5(3):vii-viii
references.pmid: 10537599
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2006 Mar;96(3):410-3
references.pmid: 16449601
references.citation: J Appl Psychol. 2000 Aug;85(4):612-24
references.pmid: 10948805
references.citation: Qual Health Res. 2002 Sep;12(7):990-9
references.pmid: 12214683
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2003 Nov-Dec;9(6):459-70
references.pmid: 14606184
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2007 Jul-Aug;13(4):364-73
references.pmid: 17563624
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2006 May-Jun;12(3):232-41
references.pmid: 16614558
references.citation: Health Aff (Millwood). 2002 Nov-Dec;21(6):57-67
references.pmid: 12442840
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 1991 Apr;81(4):421-6
references.pmid: 2003618
references.citation: Ann Fam Med. 2005 Sep-Oct;3(5):443-8
references.pmid: 16189061
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 2001 Aug;91(8):1235-9
references.pmid: 11499110
references.citation: Health Aff (Millwood). 2006 Jul-Aug;25(4):1017-28
references.pmid: 16835182
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 1999 May;89(5):660-1
references.pmid: 10224974
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2009 Jan-Feb;15(1):67-9
references.pmid: 19077597
references.citation: Health Serv Res. 2006 Jun;41(3 Pt 1):618-28
references.pmid: 16704502
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2001 Jul;7(4):8-16
references.pmid: 11434045
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2003 Jan-Feb;9(1):79-86
references.pmid: 12552934
references.citation: BMC Complement Altern Med. 2006 Jun 23;6:24
references.pmid: 16796753
references.citation: Nasnewsletter. 2000 May;15(3):3
references.pmid: 11987364
references.citation: J Biomed Inform. 2006 Jun;39(3):299-306
references.pmid: 16386470
references.citation: Am J Public Health. 1988 Feb;78(2):126-7
references.pmid: 3337324
references.citation: AORN J. 1996 May;63(5):926-31
references.pmid: 8712812
references.citation: Health Serv Res. 2006 Jun;41(3 Pt 1):629-39; author reply 640-2
references.pmid: 16704503
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2002 May;8(3):73-81
references.pmid: 15156628
references.citation: Health Serv Res. 2008 Aug;43(4):1223-43
references.pmid: 18355260
references.citation: Int J Qual Health Care. 2005 Apr;17(2):95-105
references.pmid: 15723817
references.citation: J Public Health Manag Pract. 2007 Jan-Feb;13(1):72-9
references.pmid: 17149103
references.citation: Health Serv Res. 1999 Feb;33(6):1683-717
references.pmid: 10029504