Effective Collaboration Models for Statisticians and Public Health Departments

The session will explore past collaborations between the statistician panelists and public health departments to highlight approaches that have and have not been effective and to recommend effective, sustainable relationship strategies for mutual advancement of practical disease surveillance and relevant academic research. Panelists will describe experiences working with health departments, including actual applications as examples. Issues discussed will include requirements analysis, scoping technical problems for health department utility, adaptation of traditional statistical methods, and management of changing data environments. Panelists will derive advice for public health practitioners seeking help in forming relationships, framing problems, communicating results, and seeking funding.