Technical Workgroup

The Technical Workgroup will address and advise on information technology, data management, and technical issues pertaining to the planning of the California Environmental Health Tracking Program.  The Workgroup will hold a series of meetings or phone conferences to discuss the technical needs assessment, the architectural framework, and the development and deployment plan.  Expertise of this advisory group should include specialists or experts that are directly responsible for or knowledgeable in:  Cal/EPA and CDHS IT infrastructure and management, environmental hazard databases, health surveillance databases, geographic information systems (GIS), relational database management, web-based application development, surveillance systems from other disciplines, network and data security, and data exchange/translation.  CEHTP project staff on the Workgroup will report timely and useful information to the project Planning Consortium.

Technical Needs Assessment

The Technical Workgroup will meet to discuss and assist in preparing a report, which will address the following issues regarding the technical needs and requirements of the CEHTP:

1. Future Assessment - Survey state and local health and environmental departments to characterize technological infrastructure, decision-making bureaucracy, and resources necessary for surveillance applications.  Survey individual surveillance systems to describe purpose, scope, capabilities, and human, technological, and financial resources of each system.  See Future Assessment Directive.

2. Prioritization of tracking data partners - Establish a set of criteria for prioritizing staged inclusion of tracking data partners in the CEHTP.  Criteria should incorporate the following issues:

a.  Geographic/temporal specificity and granularity

b.  Additional effort required to make diverse data linkable

c.  Adherence to standards, data openness, accessibility across heterogeneous computing environments

3. Hardware and software needs - Taking into account the requirements of a statewide tracking network, the Workgroup will advise and make recommendations regarding network capacity, storage capacity, load and access routing, server redundancy, web servers, application servers, enterprise GIS solutions, data translation/messaging engines, and relational database base management systems.

4. Stakeholder needs - Survey local, state, and federal stakeholders to ascertain needs in terms of dissemination tools and direct data accessibility

Architectural Framework

Using the technical needs assessment as a roadmap, the Technical Workgroup will meet to discuss, strategize, and assist in preparing a report, which describes an architectural framework for linking environmental, exposure, and outcome data.  The CEHTP must offer a secure, open, and interoperable interface for collaborating with stakeholders who share a need for similar data and tools.  The architecture must take into account the specifications and standards set by the CDC Standards and Network Development (SND) workgroup, and, in particular, the key elements of the corresponding federal IT initiatives within CDC (PHIN:  http://www.cdc.gov/phin) and USEPA (NEIEN http://www.exchangenetwork.net). The architectural plan will also address the following issues of data processing and flow:

1. Data transfer and modeling - standardized data definitions, vocabularies, logical models, data exchange/translation messaging schemas

2. Data refinement, augmentation, and linkage - GIS tools, dispersion/transport modeling, standardized exposure metrics, new reporting applications

3. Security - Firewalls, digital certificates, federal and state privacy laws

4. Dissemination and accessibility tools  - web browser reports, GIS presentation, metadata engine.

5. Integration with existing systems in state and local government health and environmental programs/initiatives

Development and Deployment Plan

The Technical Workgroup will draw upon the Rational Unified Process (RUP) in planning the phases of development and identifying the component deliverables.  With the tracking vision and architectural framework foremost in mind, a plan will be devised which aims to identify and mitigate risk both before and during the development process.  Specific methods for testing and evaluation for future incremental builds will be examined for feasibility and identified in the plan.  The plan will also address management issues of consistency and control in light of mid-development changes to the scope and requirements of the system.  Equal emphasis will be placed on development and evaluation as will be placed on user training before the system is released in a production environment.