Pre-Conference Workshops

Click a workshop for more details.

Environmental Public Health Tracking Workshop
Epidemiology Training Workshop
Healthcare Associated Infections Training Workshop
HIV Surveillance Coordinators Workshop
Injury Workshop
Influenza Coordinators Workshop
NASPHV Buisness Meeting
Occupational Health Workshop
OutbreakNet Workshop
Public Health Information Network Workshop
Substance Abuse Workshop
Tribal Workshop

Environmental Public Health Tracking Workshop
The Environmental Health section will host its pre-Conference Workshop on Sunday, June 7, 2009. The first session will focus on health impact assessment (HIA), built environment and climate change. HIAs are useful tools for examining the potential health outcomes of implementing new projects or interventions. This workshop will discuss the usefulness of HIAs, and explore the inter-connected nature of climate change, vehicle use, and how we choose to design and build our communities with a focus on the Portland community. The second session will discuss best practices for climate change public health surveillance, with a focus on heat waves. According to the International Panel on Climate Change, heat waves are expected to increase in frequency and intensity, and occur earlier. This session will focus on (1) the current climatology on heat waves; (2) signs and symptoms of heat illness; (3) current ways of measuring heat morbidity and mortality; and (4) conduct a hands-on demonstration of calculating excess mortality or morbidity from heat wave events.

Following the two workshops, interested participants may take a guided walk along the downtown esplanade of the east and west banks of the Willamette River that begins just outside of the Convention Center, and will include a stop at the famous Portland Saturday Market (a weekend market of locally made arts and crafts and delicious foods).

CSTE Point of Contact – Erin Simms, Research Analyst

Epidemiology Training Workshop –

Evaluation of Public Health Surveillance Systems
CSTE, in collaboration with CDC, is offering half-day training on Evaluation of Surveillance Systems. The workshop will include an hour-long didactic presentation on conducting surveillance evaluations followed by at least two presentations from epidemiologists highlighting their work evaluating a surveillance system. Objectives of the workshop include reviewing the steps in organizing and conducting surveillance system evaluations and describing surveillance system attributes that should be assessed or measured.

Presenting Epidemiologic and Public Health Data
CSTE, in collaboration with CDC, is offering a half-day training on Presenting Epidemiologic Data. The workshop format will be didactic lectures with time for discussion and Q&A. Objectives of the workshop include describing appropriate ways to display different types of public health data and describing the format of an effective oral scientific presentation.

CSTE Point of Contact – Amanda Masters, Workforce and Fellowship Coordinator

Healthcare-associated Infections Training Workshop
The objectives of this workshop are to provide training and technical guidance on the fundamentals of state healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention for recipients of 2009 Recovery Act HAI funds, while fostering an environment of communication and collaboration among attendees. The workshop will offer valuable training on building, establishing, and sustaining state HAI prevention infrastructure, and on collaborating with partners. It will also serve as a forum for sharing ideas and state experiences. Topic areas will include: enhancing HAI surveillance through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), focusing on NHSN data validation and analysis; developing and coordinating successful prevention collaboratives, including lessons learned and infection-specific issues; implementing and expanding upon the recently-submitted State HAI Plans; effectively communicating state HAI prevention efforts to stakeholders; planning and coordinating HAI outbreak response; the State laboratory’s role in HAI prevention efforts; and administrative issues related to the Recovery Act grant.

CSTE Point of Contact – Ed Chao, Research Analyst

HIV Surveillance Coordinators Workshop
The 2010 HIV Surveillance Coordinators Pre-Conference Workshop will provide an opportunity to look back at successes and lessons learned and to look forward to where HIV surveillance will go in the future. Over the past decade, CDC, in partnership with state and local health departments, has written technical guidance for surveillance, deployed eHARS, instituted HIV incidence surveillance, and developed an evaluation plan. Sessions will include updates on how the evaluation plan will be operationalized as well as updates to the technical guidance, including security and confidentiality guidelines that better support surveillance integration across HIV and other infectious disease programs. Discussions will range from the detailed (case studies using eHARS examples, data analyses using laboratory data) to the broad (update on the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategic Plan and the role of surveillance in that plan). The afternoon will include the CSTE business meeting to discuss agenda items for conference calls, peer-to-peer technical assistance and training opportunities, subcommittee operational procedures, and subcommittee elections. By the end of the workshop, attendees will have a better understanding of how their surveillance programs will be evaluated, how to use the tools they have to improve surveillance system performance, and how to use surveillance data to describe their epidemics in new ways.

CSTE Point of Contact – Lauren Rosenberg, Research Analyst

Influenza Coordinators Workshop
CSTE, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control, will be hosting a full day Influenza Coordinators Workshop June 6, 2010 in conjunction with the CSTE Annual Conference. The purpose of the meeting is provide a forum for states and CDC to discuss changes in influenza surveillance, new activities, and increasing demands on states to effectively perform surveillance functions.

Invited participates include Influenza Coordinators from states and large cities. Participants will also include representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Learning Objectives:

Awareness of pandemic planning guidelines for surveillance
Awareness of ongoing influenza surveillance-related research
Understanding of H1N1 pandemic planning for the future

CSTE Point of Contact – Ed Chao, Research Analyst

Injury Workshop
This is a 2 hour session that will meet from 2:00-4:00 Pacific Time.
Administrative datasets contain identifying information used for surveillance and monitoring activities. However, obtaining specific measures and outcomes often requires the linkage of independently maintained client information. Linking unique clients, individuals or events within and across administrative datasets is a challenging endeavor due to: use of nicknames, hyphenations, misspellings, and transposed SSN digits. Failure to appropriately deal with this problem may lead to incomplete linking of client records and, ultimately, introduce unnecessary error into estimates. In this workshop, three non-commercial readily available record linkage solutions (Link Plus, The Link King, and a generic deterministic algorithm) will be presented along with evidence illustrating the important role linkage algorithms play in generating accurate estimates. The impact of record linkage methodology on surveillance, performance measures and outcome indicators will also be discussed. Finally, a demonstration of a free SAS based record linkage application (The Link King, www.the-link-king.com) will be presented.

CSTE Point of Contact – Erin Simms, Research Analyst

NASPHV Annual Meeting
First incorporated in 1953, the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV) is an organization of professionals with expertise in the prevention and control of zoonotic disease, as well as various other areas of veterinary public health. The majority of NASPHV members are veterinarians with advanced training and degrees in public health, and hold federal, state or local government positions. Because of the many members in common, shared goals and close working association with CSTE, NASPHV holds their annual meeting in conjunction with the CSTE Annual Conference. The meeting agenda includes organizational business, committee and compendium reports, brief presentations by members or others concerning issues of interest or concern, and a roundtable report by members as to the main issues/problems currently being faced in their state or territory. CSTE conference attendees are welcome to attend.

CSTE Point of Contact – Lauren Rosenberg, Research Analyst

Occupational Health Workshop
A pre-conference workshop will be hosted by the Occupational Health Subcommittee and will focus on policy-making in the face of emerging issues like H1N1. Invited speakers will discuss OSHA N95 guidance for healthcare workers followed by a panel session to highlight how NIOSH, CDC, and OSHA develops policies during crisis situations, the timeliness of those actions, and their mechanism for responding to new research findings during an ongoing outbreak or situation. We will include members of professional groups that are affected by those agency decisions, using the H1N1 outbreak and the OSHA N-95 Guidance for Healthcare Workers as the central theme for the session. After a break for lunch, speakers and participants will discuss how BLS, OSHA, and states can work together to build a surveillance system to fill gaps in undercounts of non-fatal work-related injuries and both fatal and non-fatal illnesses. Finally, the workshop will end with a selection of stories from states to highlight how stories from real people can impact policy.

CSTE Point of Contact – Erin Simms, Research Analyst

OutbreakNet
The OutbreakNet Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments, CSTE and regulatory agencies, invite epidemiologists and public health partners with major responsibilities in enteric disease surveillance and outbreak response to attend the Sixth Annual OutbreakNet Conference on June 6, 2010 in Portland, OR. This meeting is being convened in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The objectives of the Annual OutbreakNet Conference are to provide information, foster communication, and promote collaboration among the national network of epidemiologists and other public health officials who investigate outbreaks of foodborne, waterborne, and other enteric illnesses in the United States. Past conferences have addressed topics related to recent advances in outbreak investigation and communication, multistate cluster detection and prioritization, regulatory perspectives on food safety and foodborne outbreaks, and approaches and best practices for communicating during multistate foodborne outbreaks. Topics this year include methods for control selection, various laboratory approaches during multistate outbreaks, updates from federal regulatory agencies, and updates from OutbreakNet Sentinel Sites on capacity building for outbreak response.

CSTE Point of Contact – Lauren Rosenberg, Research Analyst

Public Health Information Network Workshop
Objective: To discuss electronic health information exchanges between traditional and non-traditional partners; to provide the states an update on the future of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) and the national and state progress in electronic laboratory reporting (ELR); to demonstrate the innovation in public health case reporting and provide an example of best practice regarding the exchange of health information between hospitals and public health departments.

Audience: Public health informaticians, epidemiologists and laboratorians

Summary: Participants will have the opportunity to learn about innovative solutions in the field of electronic health information exchanges. Half of the workshop will focus on two health departments who will describe their varying health information needs and how they were able to collaboratively share population health-level data with non-traditional partners (including the Indian Health Service and National Park Service). The other half of the workshop will be dedicated to issues of state interest – NEDSS, ELR and public health case reporting. Discussion will include information on how to sustain CSTE’s priority national programs in light of the recent changes at CDC. Finally, CDC leaders will provide an update participate in discussions throughout the workshop.

CSTE Point of Contact – Lisa Ferland, Research Analyst

Substance Abuse Workshop
The theme of this year’s Substance Abuse Epidemiology Pre-conference workshop is “Building and Maintaining Substance Abuse Epidemiology Capacity in States.” This full-day workshop will include presentations and discussions around substance abuse surveillance definitions, the use of hospital discharge data for overdose surveillance, and the use of survey data for alcohol epidemiology. We will also discuss state substance abuse epidemiology capacity – where we have come from, and where we are going.

CSTE Point of Contact – Ed Chao, Research Analyst

Tribal Workshop
The 2010 Tribal Epidemiology Pre-Conference Workshop on June 6, 2010 will be a full-day workshop on improving American Indian and Alaska Native health data availability for public health surveillance. The intended audiences are epidemiologists from tribal epidemiology centers (TECs), state and local health departments, and federal agencies. Presentations at the workshop will include:

TEC Overview: core functions, funding/support, “public health authority”
Indian Healthcare System Overview: Indian Health Service (IHS), Tribal and Urban Indian healthcare facilities; funding of Indian healthcare services
Sources of AI/AN Public Health Data: Site-specific electronic health data, IHS aggregated data, research projects, program reports
Data-sharing Agreements: protection of Tribal communities, protection of Tribal data, data ownership
State and Federal Public Health Data Systems: access to data by TECs, inclusion of AI/AN population in public health data sets, accuracy of racial classification
Review findings from the CSTE/RWJF Report: Legal Issues Concerning Identifiable Health Data Sharing Between State/Local Public Health Authorities and Tribal Epidemiology Centers in Select U.S. Jurisdictions

CSTE conference attendees are encouraged to attend.

CSTE Point of Contact – Ed Chao, Research Analyst