Funded Program:
National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Part A

Program Description:

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) is working through an Interagency Coordinating Group (ICG) to launch, coordinate, and oversee progress for the Maryland environmental health tracking initiative. The group comprises six staff members from the DHMH and the Maryland Department of the Environment and will plan action steps, set interim goals and deadlines, address problems and ensure the completion of tasks. In addition, the ICG ensure collaboration and stakeholder involvement. The DHMH proposes to use funds to:

The primary goals of this project are to:

• Enhance the state’s capacity for biomonitoring by purchasing essential laboratory equipment and hiring an additional laboratory scientist
• Inventory existing Maryland databases for environmental hazards, human exposures, and health effects
• Assess each database for its utility and potential for integration and linkage within an environmental public health tracking system
• Engage and develop partnerships with stakeholders in the community, academia, and federal, state, and local government agencies in the planning and development of Maryland’s environmental public health tracking system
• Develop a planning consortium
• Set initial priorities for the environmental health tracking system
• Participate in national meetings and conference calls for the development of standards and best practices in environmental public health tracking
• Assess statutory and regulatory authorities for, and barriers to, an environmental public health tracking system
• Upgrade databases that do not comply with national standards, such as the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System
• Train environmental, healthcare, and public health professionals
• Develop a staged plan for an environmental public health tracking system in Maryland to include direct electronic data reporting and linkages within, between, and among hazard, exposure, and health effect databases
• Examine environmental public health indicators in relation to the priorities set for Maryland
• Continually evaluate and improve the developing environmental public health tracking system.