At a glance
CDC supports the District of Columbia and other state and local health departments, or their bona fide agents, through cooperative agreements to support childhood lead poisoning prevention activities. Read about the program's successes.
About the program
The District of Columbia received $300,000 through cooperative agreement EH21-2102 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in FY 2022. The funds address childhood lead poisoning prevention and surveillance programmatic activities being conducted from September 30, 2022, to September 29, 2023.
The strategies focus on:
- Ensuring blood lead testing and reporting
- Enhancing blood lead surveillance
- Improving linkages to recommended services
To learn more about these efforts in the District of Columbia, contact the program below.
Department of Energy and Environment
Lead Safe and Healthy Housing Division
1200 First Street NE, 5th Floor
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-535-2600
Note:
Success story: funding year 2
Developing an automatic data conversion system for realtime case response in Washington, DC
Challenge
Washington, DC requires all children to be tested for lead twice by two years of age. All blood lead results are reported to the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP), recorded in the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Surveillance System (HHLPSS), and referred for case management if the result is at or above CDC's blood lead reference value (BLRV).
Intervention
The process described above relies on personnel availability. In addition, the time required by personnel to manually convert various lab/hospital file formats (e.g., TXT, CSV, XLXS) and verify results was evaluated for efficiency. To accelerate the availability of childhood lead surveillance data for case management response and to reduce errors, processing time, and reliance on personnel, a multi-disciplinary CLPPP data team was convened in May 2021. The goal of the team was to identify developer software that provides tools to create programs that automate data processes.
The CLPPP data team consists of individuals with more than 25 years of combined expertise in the field of software engineering, database administration, server administrator, HHLPSS administrator, program analyst, and data analysis. The CLPPP team used the developer's tool to build a customized final product that receives files, detects the file formats, converts files into one standard HL7 format, and automatically records the processed blood lead data into the program's HHLPSS, referred to as the Automated Lead File Conversion Solution.
Impact
As of October 1, 2022, the benefits of implementing the Automated Lead File Conversion Solution include:
- At least 3,083 total blood test records automatically processed
- A 12% increase in real-time detection of new lead cases due to lead screening result files received and auto-processed outside normal business hours, including weekends, from October 1 through December 12, 2022
- Fewer data errors due to the software's ability to detect various file formats
- Reduced conversion time from six minutes manually to less than one minute using the automatic conversion system
- Immediate case management response because of around-the-clock detection of blood lead test results
Funding for this work was made possible in part by NUE2EH001463 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of CDC; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Success story: funding year 1
Collaboration with District of Columbia public schools to improve lead screening rates
Challenge
In the District of Columbia (DC), all children are required to have two blood lead tests before they turn two years old—the first test between 6 months and 14 months and the second test between the ages of 22 months and 26 months. A blood lead test is also required to attend DC Public Schools (DCPS), and test results are included on a student's Universal Health Certificate. In practice, most DC children are not tested twice before two years of age, and some children are never tested at all. Fewer than half of the 4,744 Head Start students enrolled for the 2016–2017 school year had a blood lead test result on their Universal Health Certificate.
Intervention
To tackle this problem, DCPS and the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) collaborated to ensure students are tested. Efforts were focused on Head Start students because these students are the youngest and are at highest risk of lead poisoning. DOEE participated in a data-sharing agreement with DCPS to provide them with students' blood lead test results. DOEE also identified schools with the most students in need of lead testing, prioritizing students with diagnosed learning or behavioral issues. DOEE then deployed blood lead test teams to the identified schools.
Impact
Of the 2,669 students with no lead test on their Universal Health Certificate, DOEE was able to provide testing for 2,019 students (76%). This process allowed DOEE and DCPS to correctly identify which students were in need of lead testing. In the 2016–17 school year, 650 students needed testing—a 34% reduction from the previous year.
Funding for this work was made possible in part by NUE1EH001257 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the CDC; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.