A Regional, Multi-Institutional Academic Partnership for Excellence in EPHT

环境公共卫生跟踪（EPHT）是一种公共卫生或流行病学监测， 监测和查明可归因于环境因素的当地疾病或伤害 危险和传播这些数据，以制定干预措施，防止和/或减少 这些事件的发生频率和严重程度。这项建议旨在开展一项区域性、多机构的 EPHT项目旨在发展美国东北部（例如，缅因州， 新罕布什尔州、马萨诸塞州、康涅狄格州、纽约和纽约市）进行监视， 流行病学研究，展示数据链接方法的新应用和发展， 模式检测和评估疾病的关联，并培训学生和其他 研究人员在使用和解释这些方法的研究可能的环境 疾病的原因具体来说，除了检讨现行的监察方法外， 计划调查和验证与环境问题有关的新数据字段， 报告系统，如出生证明。我们将回顾生态分析的当前应用 注意到局限性和改进的机会，制定培训材料，说明 关键点与具体的，非数学逻辑和例子，并提供实际指导， 实施.我们还将探索利用当地环境的空间连贯性的新方法 暴露，如地理加权回归（GWR）和多变量方法，进行 具体的分析，以证明他们的优势和劣势的EPHT。我们将与EPHT合作 合作伙伴确定和开发一个区域EPHT流行病学研究，重点是当地的问题， 重要性，例如饮用水中的砷或空气污染对生殖的影响，或 评估儿童癌症和相关环境暴露的空间格局。最初，我们 重点将是促进合作和数据共享，同时考虑到以下问题： 保密为了提供指导，我们将召集一个由合作伙伴代表组成的咨询委员会， 卫生机构、伙伴环境机构、工业界、非政府组织和公众。我们将这些努力视为 这是从单个EPHT合作伙伴计划向国家EPHT网络和合作迈出的重要一步。

Environmental public health tracking (EPHT), a type of public health or epidemiologic surveillance, is the ongoing monitoring for and identification of local disease or injury excesses attributable to environmental hazards and the dissemination of these data for development of interventions to prevent and/or reduce the frequency and severity of these occurrences. This proposal seeks to undertake a regional, multi-institutional EPHT project to develop collaborations among neighboring EPHT Partners in the northeast US (e.g, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New York City) for surveillance and epidemiologic research, to demonstrate new applications and developments in methods for data linkage, pattern detection and assessment of exposure-disease associations, and to train students and other researchers in the use and interpretation of these approaches for the study of the possible environmental causes of disease. Specifically, in addition to conducting a review of current surveillance methodology, we plan to investigate and validate the addition of new data fields relevant to environmental problems to current reporting systems, such as birth certificates. We will review the current applications of ecologic analysis methods to EPHT, noting limitations and opportunities for improvement, develop training materials illustrating key points with concrete, non-mathematical logic and examples, and provide practical guidance for implementation. We also will explore new methods that exploit the spatial coherence of local environmental exposures, such as geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multivariate methods, conducting specific analyses to demonstrate their strengths and weaknesses for EPHT. We will work with EPHT partners to identify and develop a regional EPHT epidemiologic study focusing on a problem of local importance, such as the reproductive effects of exposure to arsenic in drinking water or air pollution, or assessment of the spatial pattern of childhood cancers and related environmental exposures. Initially, our focus will be on facilitating collaboration and data sharing while accommodating concerns about confidentiality. To provide guidance, we will convene an advisory committee of representatives from partner health agencies, partner environmental agencies, industry, NGOs and the public. We see these efforts as an important step from individual EPHT partner programs towards national EPHT network and collaboration.