Public health agencies have a growing interest in using data to inform their work and improve outcomes for the people they serve.
Integrating data into Early Childhood Integrated Data Systems (ECIDS) is one important step forward. Here are 5 reasons why.
1. Data integration is a priority for sectors seeking to make data-informed decisions.
Integration enables policymakers and program staff to make decisions that cannot be made using data from a single program or system. It facilitates the technical and organizational collaboration that leads to responsive and data-informed cross-program planning and decision-making.
2. Public health issues span multiple sectors.
Service providers and policymakers need data from multiple programs and services to measure the effectiveness of prevention and intervention efforts.
Let’s look at childhood obesity as an example. The burden of addressing childhood obesity does not fall solely on health care providers; it also falls on educators, schools, families, and communities. Socioeconomic factors, level of family support, school policies, and even environmental efforts all influence this widespread public health issue.
3. This approach has the results to show for it.
Public health data integration supports policy change to support children and families.
For example, Rhode Island’s system KIDSNET, “a universal database of young children that begins capturing data at birth,” allowed WIC program staff to identify children who had not received lead screenings and immunizations. This cross-program information led to new policies increasing referrals for immunizations and lead screenings for children receiving WIC services.
4. Integrating data supports both child and family outcomes.
While tackling the unique challenges of data integration and collaboration is not easy, it is a worthwhile challenge. Health influences a child’s ability to thrive in childhood and later in life. Combining public health data with early childhood data allows program leaders and policymakers to make data-informed decisions to improve services.
5. The public health field could leverage more work from the early childhood field.
The early childhood field has formalized and improved processes to increase efficiency and alleviate concerns about data sharing. States have made gains over the last decade in establishing Early Childhood Integrated Data Systems (ECIDS).
Public health leaders can reach out to the SLDS State Support Team to identify those leading data integration efforts in their state and use the Title V Early Childhood Data Integration Toolkit use cases as a guide to demonstrate value in their own priority areas. Those new to ECIDS can use the ECIDS Toolkit, developed with leadership from our experts, to better understand the key components of and best practices for these systems.
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