Who are we?
Massachusetts Environmental Public Health Tracking (MA EPHT) is a program within the Massachusetts Department of Public Health/Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health (DPH/BCEH). Our Bureau is comprised of nine programs which contribute to a vibrant Tracking team that supports EPHT's purpose to:
“Provide access to up-to-date health and environmental data and visualization tools for the communication and evaluation of environmental public health trends, and for the implementation of successful environmental public health actions.”
The MA EPHT program is part of the CDC's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network of 33 states and local tracking programs. Please visit the CDC’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking website for more details.
What do we do?
Maintain public facing web content and data portal:
MA EPHT maintains a public-facing online web content and data portal which provides a centralized source for timely, local, accessible environmental health information and data. Data are presented in tables, charts, and dynamic maps to help users identify patterns, trends, and the relationship between environmental exposures and health. We provide useful tools that pull multiple datasets together so users can interpret environmental health information in meaningful ways.
Collaborate with partners:
MA EPHT collaborates with internal and external partners to:
- inform decisions about MA EPHT data, data analysis, and communication messages and products
- maintain and improve existing MA EPHT datasets
- develop new data indicators, communicate data and trends, work on local and regional projects, and support public health actions.
- support data to action projects that use MA EPHT data to inform decisions or strategies and implement interventions to positively impact community health and wellbeing.
Promote use of data to inform public health action:
MA EPHT data is used to help connect communities, public health professionals, policy makers, state agencies, and others to the data they need to monitor public health, respond to health concerns, and prioritize resources for public health action.
Visit the MA EPHT Success Stories webpage to learn more.
History of MA EPHT
In 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission identified the lack of basic information needed to link environmental hazards and chronic diseases. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded a pilot program for state and local health departments to integrate existing health and environmental information systems and build state-based tracking networks.
MA was one of the first states to partner with the CDC’s federal Environmental Public Health Tracking Program in 2002. Here is the history and progress of the program:
- 2008: The MA EPHT website was launched to include a national set of environmental and health measures as well as .
- 2014: An updated version of the website was launched to include dynamic data queries and an interactive map interface.
- Between 2016-2021 we continued to enhance the content and data on the tracking site by including several dynamic reports (that I’ll describe a bit more later in the presentation)
- 2022-Present: Our focus is on collaborating with partners to bring data to action by exploring ways that Tracking data can be used to help drive data informed decision making, and we are also focusing on creating new innovative data communication products.
Privacy and Security
Data are only presented to the public if the confidentiality rules of MDPH and the data steward are met. These are rules requiring data aggregation and suppression to protect privacy.
