Thursday, January 21, 2016
NAPHSIS Receives Funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
We are pleased to announce that NAPHSIS, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), is launching a ground-breaking new initiative, in cooperation with NCHS, to establish a health indicator at the census tract level nationwide. Currently county is the smallest geographic unit for which at least some population health indicators are available across the entire U.S., although sub-county level health indicators are available for some states and cities.
Because county level data obscure health disparities at the sub-county (community) level, lacking sub-county data we are unable to calculate a health indicator that allows us to measure population health in each neighborhood/community. Nationwide, it is not possible to evaluate need for, or measure effectiveness of, community level programs to reduce health disparities.
The census tract level health indicator proposed for this project is life expectancy at birth, calculated using Census Bureau population data and mortality data from state vital records offices (VROs). NAPHSIS proposes to work with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) on this project.
Our role will be to facilitate data acquisition from VROs, data quality review, and to promote use of census tract life expectancy estimates that will be calculated under a separate agreement between RWJF and NCHS. The project’s first year focuses on development of a data sharing agreement between the VROs and NCHS and following up with VROs to ensure timely submission of mortality data to NCHS for this project.
We are excited to be working on this challenging undertaking. You will be hearing more about this project in the coming months. If you have any questions or would like to learn more now, please contact me.
NAPHSIS Releases RFP for STEVE 2.0
With 46 jurisdictions currently running the State and Territorial Exchange of Vital Events system, STEVE has delivered tremendous improvements in the efficiency and timeliness of file sharing between the jurisdictions. However, almost ten years after its initial development—and even longer when measured in “IT years”—STEVE is nearing the end of its useful life. With an eye on the future, NAPHSIS has decided to move ahead with STEVE2.0, a replacement system built on up-to-date technology that will require less effort to maintain on the part of the states.
On January 6th, NAPHSIS released a request for proposals to develop and deliver a software solution to replace the current STEVE software application. NAPHSIS would like to thank board members Mark Miller (NE) and Jeff Duncan (UT), and IJE committee co-chairs Robin Wolf (KS) and Craig Ward (MO), for their help in completing this important document over the holidays. Your dedication helped to get the STEVE2.0 development process launched!
The RFP is posted on the NAPHSIS website and was also distributed to over 30 different vendors, including NAPHSIS corporate partners that may be interested in submitting competitive bids for the creation of STEVE2.0. Proposals are due by February 1st. For more background on this project and full information on the RFP process, please visit the News & Events page.
Do You Want to Attend the NVDRS Hill Day?
The opportunity to speak with congressional representatives at their offices is an important part of keeping lawmakers educated on complex topics, such as the importance of vital records to the nation’s health. On Monday, March 14th, the National Violence Prevention Network will be hosting one such “Hill Day” aimed at educating members of Congress about the public health utility of the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). NAPHSIS has been working with the National Violence Prevention Network for many years, and they have invited our members to attend this event. This is a great chance for our members to educate lawmakers on the value of the states’ death data and the critical work of the vital records offices.
The March 14th event will include state NVDRS staff travelling to Washington, DC to meet with their elected officials, and this opportunity is now also available to NAPHSIS members to reinforce the important part vital records play in NVDRS. All participants will meet with congressional staff from their state. The National Violence Prevention Network will reimburse all travel and meeting-related costs for registered participants. If you are interested and able to participate and would like more information about travel reimbursement, please contact Paul Bonta (pbonta@acpm.org), Associate Executive Director of the American College of Preventive Medicine, and Chair of the National Violence Prevention Network, to register by Friday, February 26th.
New NCHS Data Visualization on Drug Overdose Deaths
With many stories in the news recently referencing the issue of both prescription and non-prescription drug overdose deaths, the National Center for Health Statistics has produced a very timely data visualization to capture the extent of this critical public health problem. The new visualization, Drug Poisoning Mortality, presents drug poisoning deaths at the national, state, and county levels. The interactive dashboards on that page allow users to review trends over the years 2002 to 2014 in age-adjusted death rates by selected demographic characteristics. This new release is yet another good example of the work being done on state mortality data, and why fast, high quality record delivery to NCHS is so vital.
NAPHSIS Position Opening: Program Assistant
The NAPHSIS headquarters office has an opening; we are currently seeking an energetic, organized, and proactive Program Assistant to support various grants and projects at our office in Silver Spring, MD. This is an entry level, administrative position reporting to Andrea Price, Program Manager for Vital Statistics Improvement. For more information on this opportunity, please see this page of the website.
MN Death Data Delivery Project Wins State Award
Congratulations to our members at the Minnesota Department of Health on receiving the Minnesota Governor’s Continuous Improvement Award for 2015! Their Death Data Delivery Project has been recognized by the Minnesota governor’s office as a significant achievement in improving the efficiency of their state government. This project originated when local public health agencies approached the state office about receiving death data sooner in order to conduct surveillance and prevention activities and respond to emerging issues. In response, State Registrar Molly Crawford and her team worked closely with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), NAPHSIS, and the National Center for Health Statistics to improve the quality and availability of vital records death data.
This Minnesota quality improvement effort was part of a bigger ASTHO project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve performance across federal, state, and local public health agencies. In this case, the Minnesota state office focused their efforts to reduce the elapsed time in providing quality death data to families, local public health agencies, and death data users. Perhaps the most impressive result of the project was reducing the amount of time between receiving ICD-10 coded records from NCHS and sharing real time death data to just one week! The state office also now regularly and systematically releases preliminary death data as a result of this project.
It is encouraging to see a vital records office’s efforts to improve operations get recognized on this level, and we congratulate Molly and her staff on their award.
Vital Records: The Heart of Health and Identity
The 2016 program committee is pleased to announce the theme for this year’s annual meeting: Vital Records: The Heart of Health and Identity! Inspired by the meeting location in the heartland of the country–Kansas City, Missouri–the committee is creating an agenda full of opportunities to collaborate on vital records issues at the center of the nation’s public health and identity efforts. This year’s meeting will take place June 12th – June 15th. The committee will be posting a draft agenda shortly, and an invitation email with more details on the meeting will be distributed in the next few weeks. As we get closer to the meeting, the latest updates can always be found on the meeting page on the NAPHSIS website.
2016 Dues Reminder
My thanks to all the jurisdictions that submitted their dues payments for 2016 by the January 1st deadline. Your annual member dues are already helping to make possible the NAPHSIS activities that support your offices. For jurisdictions that have not yet paid their dues, we urge you to follow-up now! Please contact NAPHSIS headquarters to let us know when to expect payment, or for answers to any questions about the dues process. Annual dues must be paid in order for a jurisdiction’s members to have voting privileges in the 2016 election of NAPHSIS board members and to receive the special member registration rate for the annual meeting.
With the annual dues renewal comes the opportunity for vital records offices to submit updates and additions to their membership for the year. Please take this opportunity to review your current list of members and update it as needed. As a reminder, each jurisdiction receives five agency memberships, but additional vital records/statistics staff may be added as members upon payment of a small per person fee of $50. If your jurisdiction would like to receive an individualized invoice that includes additional memberships, please contact Stephanie N’garsanet in our finance office.
by Will Whitman at 10:31 AM