Harris County Public Health (HCPH) is the local health department serving the third most populous community in
approx. 2.5 million people within large unincorporated areas and over 30 small municipalities (not including the city of Houston). For other activities such as mosquito & vector control, it includes the entire 4.7mil. population. HCPH embraces cornerstone values of Innovation, Engagement, and Equity for both planning and public health implementation.
With over 22 sites across the system, there was no central source for vetted data. A federation of processes existed for data acquisition, sharing, and analysis. Across each site, each data owner utilized data differently, while strategic public health visibility and value-based decision-making were not centralized. Data issues within HCPH were emblematic of national issues within the United States, where data are usually owned at the State level with little or no federal standards. Access to timely and accurate data across multiple datasets is critical to
These data need to be put in the context of social determinants of health to ensure that response is performed in an equitable fashion. HCPH embarked on a journey to create a nationally recognized, state-of-art Data Warehouse that quickly identifies, observes, and responds to community surveillance trends. By utilizing data in this capacity, HCPH has gained
