Accelerating states' data modernization efforts

The CDC launched its Data Modernization in Action site which includes an article about the first Data Modernization Workshop PHII hosted in 2021. This workshop supported jurisdictional public health departments further their data modernization efforts with new guidance and planning resources.  PHII also led a workshop in 2022.

2023 Data Modernization Initiative Workshop

Save the date!

Data Modernization Workshop: Connect, Ignite, Act

September 12-14, 2023

For our third year, the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII), in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will host a virtual workshop for DMI Directors, their teams and designated public health partners. This three-day virtual event will build upon the workshops held in 2021 and 2022, and strives to enhance jurisdictions’ technical skills and ability to form equity-centered connections that progress modernization ideas and aspirations among people and across systems. We plan to create a highly interactive experience focused on amplifying connections and content-sharing capacities.

Call for presentations is now closed. PHII would like to thank all those who submitted a presentation or panel idea related to one of these topic areas:

  • Connect: How are you forming connections?
  • Ignite: How are you firing things up?
  • Act: How are you making it happen?

If you have any questions, please contact datamodlearning@taskforce.org.

2022 Data Modernization Initiative Workshop

In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) hosted the 2022 Data Modernization Workshop: Accelerating Transformational Strategies for Lasting Change. 

The three-day virtual workshop targeted 64 jurisdictions who are recipients of the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC) grant and included more than 300 attendees from STLT jurisdictions and over 100 additional attendees from federal partners, industry leaders and subject matter experts. Similar to 2021, the workshop focused on small group peer to peer interaction and supporting jurisdictions as they transition from planning to implementing data modernization plans. Key topics included:

  • Data exchange and interoperability
  • Data system architecture and design
  • Transforming data into information

PAVILION SESSION, DEVELOPING INITIATIVE WITH FOUNDATIONAL ASSETS

Jennifer Layden
Associate Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Vivian Singletary
Director
Public Health Informatics Institute

View slide deck

Video recording

Campfire session, track 1: accelerating workforce growth

Lea Theodorou
Evaluation Fellow
Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Chris Baumgartner
Senior Data Exchange Manager
Washington State Department of Health

Nancy Barrett
Epidemiologist, Informatics Program Lead

Connecticut Department of Public Health

Gary V. Archambault
Informatics Program Lead
Connecticut Department of Public Health

View slide deck

campfire session, track 2: designing systems centered on equity

Artrese Morrison
Senior Director of Programs
Bay Area Health Leads 

Tanissha Harrell
Director of Partner Engagement
211/CIE San Diego

Rox Suarez
Director of Partner Integration
211/CIE San Diego

John Patty
Professor of Political Science and Quantitative Theory & Methods
Emory University

View slide deck

PAVILION SESSION, transforming systems through a lens of sustainability

Jeff Brown
Innovate Ohio Program Manager
Ohio Department of Administrative Services

Andrew Wiesenthal
Principal
TELHI Consulting

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Video recording

Campfire session, track 1: Exploring potential with federal initiatives

Ryan Argentieri
Deputy Director
Office of Technology, Office of the National Coordinator

Nedra Garrett
Senior Public Health Informatics Health Scientist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

Mike Judd
Program Manager and Project Lead for PRIME
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Note: There are no slides for the Exploring potential with federal initiatives campfire session as it was a panel discussion.

campfire session, track 2: Illuminating new technologies for capacity and action

Aasa Dahlberg Schmit
Director of Data Strategy and Interoperability
Minnesota Department of Public Health

Mark Alexander
Data Scientist
New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

Katie Cruz
New Mexico State Immunization Information System (NMSIIS) Manager
New Mexico Department of Health

View slide deck

PAVILION SESSION, beyond the workshop

James Kucik
Director
Data Modernization Initiative Implementation Unit, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

View slide deck

Video recording

Campfire session, track 1: Tending the FHIR

Justin Irving
Lead Public Health Informaticist
MITRE

Forrest White
Co-program Manager
Helios FHIR Accelerator, Project Manager, Public Health Systems Interoperability, Altarum

Ravi Kafle
Senior Epidemiologist
Office of Innovation and Technology, Washington State Department of Health

View slide deck

campfire session, track 2: Empowering public health with interoperable systems

Kate Hohman
Associate Director of Public Health Practice
National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD)

Heidi Lengdorfer
Systems Manager
National Association of Public Health Statistics & Information Systems (NAPHSIS)

Kirk Bol
V
ital Statistics Program Manager
Colorado Department of Health

Mike Berry
Senior Project Manager
HLN 

View slide deck

Campfire session, Track 3: A people-centered approach to data exchange

Carly Babcock
Informatics Specialist
Maryland Department of Health

Marcia Pearlowitz
Chief
Contact Tracing Unit, Maryland Department of Health 

Ryan Ames
Research and Evaluation Analyst Supervisor
Washington County Public Health (Oregon)

Taylor Pinsent
Senior Communicable Disease Epidemiologist
Multnomah County Public Health (Oregon) 

Molly Crockett
Senior Informatics Integration/Interoperability Epidemiologist
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Tara Fleckner
Surveillance Epidemiologist
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

View slide deck

  • Maker Session Roadmap
    • PHII summarized the rich discussions and created three resources to be used by jurisdictions, federal organizations and partners to align and inform our DMI efforts. This roadmap walks through suggested uses of the resources.  
  • Building Blocks Summary
    • On day one of the workshop, maker session participants were asked to select a service or function, known as a “building block,” that was of highest priority to their jurisdiction. All of the jurisdictions prioritized the list of building blocks within the data exchange, patient matching, data cleaning and validation, and location services categories and discussed the specifics of what is needed for each building block.
  • Technologies & Tools Summary
    • On day two of the workshop, maker session participants were asked to discuss technology and tools that could be implemented to address the service or function, known as a “building block,” identified on day one. 
  • Governance Considerations Summary
    • On day three of the workshop, the maker session participants discussed governance considerations – the people that need to be involved – for the different aspects of implementation. Participants chose from the following categories and discussed who needed to be involved in those decisions as time allowed: 1)  forming a procurement agreement, 2) joint purchasing negotiation, 3) testing and implementation, and 4) production iterations and maintenance.

2021 Data Modernization Initiative Workshop

Targeted towards recipients of the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC) cooperative agreement, the Data Modernization Workshop harnessed peer-to-peer learning to engage participants on key topics:

  • sustainable information infrastructure
  • improved workforce capacity and
  • shared solutions to common data challenges.


Collaboration continued after the workshop as attendees shared job descriptions for informatics staff as well as recruitment and retention strategies implemented within their health departments.

View the evaluation report executive summary from the 2021 workshop to learn key takeaways and recommendations. Find session recordings and slides from the workshop below.

Keynote: Opening remarks

Dan Jernigan, MD, MPH
Acting Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

View slide deck

Video recording

Sustainable and scalable public health infrastructure

Janet Hamilton, MPH
Executive Director
Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists

Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH
Head of Health Systems Strengthening Sector
Task Force for Global Health

View slide deck

Video recording

Additional slides

Moving public health to the cloud

  • Jim Daniel, MPH Amazon Web Services
  • Mike Suralik, MCS HLN Consulting
  • John Satre, BS Iowa Department of Public Health

Clearing the reporting pipeline

  • Kelly White, MPH, CPH Indiana Department of Health
  • Samuel Steakley, BS Houston Health Department
  • Steve Eichner, MPA Texas Department of State Health Services

Standards and tools for consuming data

  • Samantha Spoto, MSPH, CPH Florida Department of Health
  • Shuennhau Chang, BSN, RN, MS Indiana Department of Health
  • Catherine Staes, PhD, MPH, RN, FAMIA, FACMI University of Utah

understanding the push and pull of standards 

Ryan Argentieri, MBA, MA
Deputy Director for the Office of Technology
Office of the National Coordinator

View slide deck

Video recording

DATA MODERNIZATION PLANNING INITIATIVE TOOLKIT OVERVIEW

Lura Daussat, MPH
Director, Practice Support Unit
Public Health Informatics Institute

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Video recording

Additional slides

Machine learning to support the capture and use of data

  • Allison Culpepper, BS, Florida Department of Health
  • Rebecca Fisher, MPH MA Los Angeles County Health Department
  • Stacey Marovich, MHI, MS, PMP, MCTS CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health

Leveraging public, private and nonprofit partnerships

  • Bryant Karras, MD Washington State Department of Health
  • Sarah Tuneberg, MPH US Exposure Notification Advocate at Google | Previously State of Colorado’s Lead for COVID-19 Testing, Containment, and Technology
  • Jenny Wanger, MBA Linux Foundation Public Health

Springboard: closing remarks 

Paula Yoon, ScD, MPH
Director, Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

View slide deck

Video presentation

AN ATTORNEY’S PERSPECTIVE ON PUBLIC HEALTH DATA MODERNIZATION 

Denise Chrysler, JD
Director, Mid-States Region
Network for Public Health Law

View slide deck

Video presentation

Additional Slides 

Strategic data partnerships

  • Sara Chronister, MPH Maricopa County Health Department
  • Billy Grow, BA & Broc Calvo, BA Turnkey Solutions
  • Rebecca Early, MPH Virginia Department of Health

A recipe for shared services: data lakes, MPI and governance

  • Cathy Wasserman, MPH PHD, Washington State Department of Health
  • Gary Archambault, MPH and Nancy Barrett, MS, MPH Connecticut Department of Public Health
  • Emily Krauss, MPH PHD Consultant, Public Health Informatics Institute