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| You are here: DOH Home » EHSPHL Home » Office of Epidemiology » VistaPHw » Introduction |
| Site Directory: | What is VistaPHw? | ||
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VistaPHw is a menu-driven software package for quick analysis of population-based health data. Users create specific analyses of health indicators by many options, including age group, race, gender, time period, and geographic location. Customized geographic areas based on groupings of census tracts, zip codes, or counties can be created saved for repeated community assessment. .VistaPHw is both a point-and-click, user-friendly interface and a collection of public health data sets. VistaPHw provides a single solution for accessing a variety of population-based data sets without the need to learn external statistical packages or acquire complex programming skills. Available calculations include crude, age-specific, and age-adjusted rates and trend tests. Most VistaPHw runs also can be displayed as bar, line, and column charts as well as displayed on a county level map. Users have flexibility of combining geographic units (combining counties to create a region or census tracts to define a neighborhood), demographic groupings (e.g. combine age groupings or race groups) and combine many indicators. VistaPHw output can be sent to Excel, a text file, or to a grid format. Text files are JoinPoint ready for additional trend analyses. Maps and charts export to Excel, Microsoft Word, or the clipboard. Assessment topics in VistaPHw include:
Additionally, other population-based, case level datasets (which need not be health related) can be prepared for use in VistaPHw by the Custom Data Module. This will allow users to produce rates and standard VistaPHw statistics for these datasets.
In
1996, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and 34 Washington Local
Health Jurisdictions (LHJs), entered into a partnership with PHSKC to
disseminate VistaPHw statewide and to provide training and assistance to LHJs in
its use. The goals of the
VistaPHw
Partnership are to: ·
Enhance
access to population-based assessment data for local and state public health
staff to use in planning and
priority-setting. ·
Ensure
access to standardized community health assessment data, methods and measures
across the state. ·
Provide
maximum flexibility to the user to define time frames, geographic areas and
assessment topics so that the information is relevant to local communities.
The VistaPHw Partnership is funded through Partnership
dollars associated with the Local Capacity Development Fund.
Partnership funding has supported software development, hardware and
software investments at the local level, training in VistaPHw and related topics
(e.g., basic epidemiology), and the Statewide VistaPHw Coordinator position,
housed at DOH.
VistaPHw is a user-governed partnership: LHJs across
Washington participate in determining the directions of VistaPHw development and
other partnership activities (e.g., training) through the VistaPHw Advisory
Group. The Advisory Group meets
two times per year and is comprised of local health VistaPHw users, DOH data suppliers
(and users), PHSKC developers, and others.
Much of the Advisory Group's work happens between meetings in ad hoc
workgroups (e.g., Functionality, Confidentiality, Classification), where
users and developers collaboratively work through technical and policy issues.
Day-to-day decision-making occurs in the VistaPHw Planning Group (PHSKC
developers, the State Registrar, the Statewide VistaPHw Coordinator, and the
Community Assessment Liaison), and is based on a consensus model.
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Last Update :
01/14/2008 09:59 AM
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