Smart Use of State Public Health Data for Health Disparity Assessment

Disparities represent a lack of efficiency within the healthcare system and therefore account for unnecessary costs. With the affirmation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, reducing health disparities through enhanced public health data infrastructure and analytical capability will become essential for healthcare practitioners. This book explain how to maximize the use of various datasets from state health departments for assessing health disparity and for disease prevention. The authors offer practical advice on state public health data use, their strengths and weaknesses, data management insight, and lessons learned.

Ge Lin, PhD is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services and Research Administration at the University of Nebraska and the co-director of the Nebraska Joint Public Health Data Center as part of the CDC infrastructure grant. In his role, he is the recipient of numerous research grants related to the Nebraska Public Health Infrastructure.

He holds positions in an advisory capacity for numerous panels and committees including the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and the National Institute of Health. He holds numerous degrees and most recently was a Research Fellow in GIS and Demography, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan and has a PhD in Geography from State University of New York at Buffalo. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles and book chapters related to expertise.

Ming Qu, MD is the administrator of the Public Health Support Unit, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), a unit which provides statistical information, epidemiology and GIS services that support public health actions and policies to improve the health and safety of Nebraskans. Prior to this position, he was an injury epidemiologist and CODES administrator for DHHS where he was instrumental in the development of the Nebraska Injury Surveillance System. Dr. Ming administers the Nebraska Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES).

He previously was a Research Assistant for the Nebraska Prevention Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska. He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters.