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November 2022: Direct From CDC/Environmental Health Services

November 2022
Volume 85, Number 4

Editor's Note: The National Environmental Health Association strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column on environmental health services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal of Environmental Health.

In these columns, authors from the CDC Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch, as well as guest authors, will share tools, resources, and guidance for environmental health practitioners. The conclusions of these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC.

Leveraging Informatics to Improve Environmental Health Practice and Innovation

Erik W. Coleman, MPH, Division of Environmental Science and Practice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Aja-Fatou Jagne, MPH, Division of Environmental Science and Practice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Andrew J. Ruiz, MSPH, BCE, Division of Environmental Science and Practice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Environmental health professionals are embracing informatics as a tool to improve the health of populations across the nation. It is essential to ensure the public has access to environmental health-related data, such as restaurant and recreational water inspections, to help make informed decisions about health and safety. While many environmental health programs across the country share their data using online platforms, this practice is not universal and the timeliness, ease of access, and extent of data sharing vary across programs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnered with the Public Health Informatics Institute to better understand how environmental health programs collect and share data. This month's column highlights the information gathered from key informants to provide insight into data standardization.

Read the Column