| Background
With nine local jurisdictions and essentially three state governments,
the metropolitan Washington area faces a special challenge in assessing
the population's health status and health needs. Although the area's state
and local public health departments conduct health assessment activities,
the region has had no mechanism for developing common health priorities
or comparable data, or for regularly maintaining and communicating assessments
of current health threats. MWPHAC was created to help fill this gap.
Goals and Objectives
MWPHAC's primary goal is to improve the health of the population of the
metropolitan Washington region by contributing to efforts to enhance the
quality and availability of population-based health data through more
effective analysis and presentation of those data, including developing
web-based access to data and analytic tools. MWHPAC is pursuing its goal
through three long-term objectives:
- To improve the availability, timeliness, accuracy, and comparability
of population-based health data in the Washington metropolitan area
to contribute to greater public awareness of public health and more
effective program planning and resource allocation
- To develop statistical and epidemiologic methods relevant to local
public health assessment efforts, such as models for sparse data and
the use of geographic information systems (GIS)
- To serve as a model of cooperation between local health agencies and
schools of public health to promote education of students and faculty
in local public health practice
Organization and Operation
The Assessment Center is a collaborative endeavor by the Metropolitan
Washington Council of Governments and its Health Officials
Committee, the Metropolitan Washington
Public Health Association, the District
of Columbia Department of Health, the Maryland
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Virginia
Department of Health, and the George
Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
MWPHAC is based at the George Washington University School of Public Health
and Health Services, and its operation is overseen by a Policy
and Management Committee with representatives from each of the participating
organizations.
Support
Initial support for MWPHAC activities includes funding from the National
Center for Health Statistics through the Association
of Schools of Public Health under a cooperative agreement
with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention; a grant from the Kaiser
Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc.; and geographic
information system software from ESRI.
Projects
- Community Health Indicators for the Washington Metropolitan Region,
published June 2001.
Available on this website
Regional data on West Nile virus for 2002
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METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON PUBLIC HEALTH
ASSESSMENT CENTER
at The George Washington University School of Public Health and
Health Services
Ross Hall, Suite 120
2300 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-994-9916 / 202-994-0082 (fax) |