Projects

Regional Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Infections

The Public Health Data & Training Center at the Institute for Public Health alongside the Center Co-Director, Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, Hilary Reno, MD, PhD are supporting local health departments by developing the region’s first comprehensive tool to track the ever-increasing number of sexually transmitted infections. This platform is one piece of a long-term strategy to address the region’s high infection rates, and is a collaboration between local public health departments, sexual health providers, and academics. Specifically, the tool is a regional sexual health database of comprehensive, “real time” information reflecting positive and negative STI cases.

Data Assessment Report

The world understands now more than ever before, the power of data to shape our lives. When it comes to public health data, the Centers for Disease Control simply states “Data saves lives. Better data saves more lives.” The City of St. Louis Department of Health (DOH) expressed concern about a lack of organization and standardization of its data assets. The aim of this project is to assess the DOH’s data infrastructure and capacity, and develop recommendations for improvement.

This report serves as a living document of data assets that DOH employees and public health practitioners can use as a reference tool and as a guide for planning ongoing data strategy and improvements. Challenges are paired with recommendations and, where possible, the cost and/or feasibility of each recommendation is noted. We hope other local public health authorities find this assessment useful and adaptable for their own needs.  

Report coming in spring 2023.

Violence Prevention

The Public Health Data & Training Center is responsible for maintaining two databases related to violence prevention for Life Outside of Violence (LOV), the Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program.

Oversight of these data is provided by a committee of the STL-HVIP body, and are available to researchers and LOV program evaluators by way of an application process.

STL-HVIP
A repository of clinical information on all hospital visits made for violent injuries from all four level-one trauma centers in the region

LOV
A program facilitated by case workers designed to prevent recidivism for violent injuries at the four participating hospitals.

Completion of these forms does not guarantee access to the requested data.

Publications

View the latest publications from our team and collaborators.

Ben Cooper
Randi Foraker
Kristen Mueller
Hilary Reno
Anne Trolard