Publicly displaying vital public health information can help engage community partners in understanding emerging diseases of concern as well as identify whether public health interventions are improving the health of Arizonans. Our newly established Environmental Public Health Tracking Program furthers this strategy by distributing environmental health surveillance data to help public health practitioners, healthcare providers, community members, policy makers, and others make information-driven decisions that improve their health and the health of others.
Currently, on this portal you can explore a large number of indicators including common causes of illness and death in Arizona as well as general demographics of geographic areas around the state. You can even compare trends over time between selected geographical areas.
With the help of partners around the state and nationally, we are in the process of adding new and relevant data to our Environmental Public Health Tracking Portal. The Portal contains environmental and public health data which can be viewed as maps, charts, and graphs. Our next addition to the Tracking Portal will be adding new hospitalization and emergency department visit information on illnesses like heat-related illness, asthma, COPD, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Environmental Public Health Tracking Program has recently been successful in partnering with the Arizona Birth Defects Monitoring Program to contribute data on several priority birth defects, which is expected to go live early next year. You can sign up to get timely access to updates.
Additionally, we have been spreading the word about this useful public health tool at opportunities like the Public Safety Days Event at the Arizona State Fair and the Arizona Sanitarian Conference. Our goal is to use tracking to better inform people through technology and data with the hope to see this tool drive similar public health actions accomplished around the country.
