title: Engaging academia to advance the science and practice of environmental public health tracking.
abstract: Public health agencies at the federal, state, and local level are responsible for implementing actions and policies that address health problems related to environmental hazards. These actions and policies can be informed by integrating or linking data on health, exposure, hazards, and population. The mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention׳s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program) is to provide information from a nationwide network of integrated health, environmental hazard, and exposure data that drives actions to improve the health of communities. The Tracking Program and federal, state, and local partners collect, integrate, analyze, and disseminate data and information to inform environmental public health actions. However, many challenges exist regarding the availability and quality of data, the application of appropriate methods and tools to link data, and the state of the science needed to link and analyze health and environmental data. The Tracking Program has collaborated with academia to address key challenges in these areas. The collaboration has improved our understanding of the uses and limitations of available data and methods, expanded the use of existing data and methods, and increased our knowledge about the connections between health and environment. Valuable working relationships have been forged in this process, and together we have identified opportunities and improvements for future collaborations to further advance the science and practice of environmental public health tracking.
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Environmental Health Tracking Branch, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-F60, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: HStrosnider@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Strosnider
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Environmental Health Tracking Branch, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-F60, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: YZhou2@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Environmental Health Tracking Branch, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-F60, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: LBalluz@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Balluz
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Office of the Director, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-F60, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA. Electronic address: JQualters@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qualters
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D011634:Public Health
keywords: Air pollution; Drinking water; Environmental health; Environmental public health tracking; Surveillance