Author: Kailee Curtis

Local Health Department

Epidemiology and Surveillance

Federal, state, and local health entities regularly collect and analyze data to understand the extent of health risk behaviors, preventive care practices, and the burden of chronic diseases to assess progress of public health programs and provide public health professionals and policy makers with timely information for effective decision making.

Key Positions
Data Analyst/Epidemiologist
Communicable Disease Nurse
MDHHS Regional Epidemiologist

A Community Health Assessment looks at a wide variety of available health data to identify the priority health issues in a community.

Meets Public Health Standards:

ü	Michigan Public Health Code
ü	Michigan Local Public Health Accreditation
ü	Public Health Accreditation Board

Services:
Local health department epidemiology and surveillance activities can include regularly analyzing and reviewing county, state, and national data to assess the health of the community. Using this data, local health department epidemiologists or data analysts can identify trends in communicable and chronic diseases, accidents, and morbidity and mortality. These trends or changes help to guide other activities in the health department by identifying areas for public health intervention. Additionally, local health departments can use epidemiology and surveillance data to report to stakeholders and funders and inform Community Health Assessments (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIP).
Goals:
Local health department epidemiology and surveillance activities are meant to:
Identify and monitor trends in morbidity and mortality in the community
Provide data to inform necessary public health interventions

Created by the Barry-Eaton District Health Department for the Michigan Association of Local Public Health with funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. August 2018.
*39 of Michigan’s local health departments indicated that they participate in epidemiology and surveillance activities of 41 who participated in the survey). Participants might not have answered each question.

Impact:
Reports like the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey and Community Health Assessments help to guide public health programing at both the state and local levels by identifying population trends in diseases and behaviors.