The Public Health Division works to ensure Oregonians have the information and tools they need to protect themselves from, respond effectively to, and recover successfully following a public health emergency. Oregon Public Health Preparedness Epidemiologists are committed to:
- Building our sureveillance and epidemiology capacity to meet the needs of the routine public health investigations, and to
- Strengthening our ability to detect intentional and unintentional public health threats as they emerge.
The Oregon Public Health Division provides technical support and epidemiology courses to local health jurisdictions for surveillance and investigation of infection diseases, radiation, water quality, iinjury, chronic illness and lead poisoning. This includes systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and management of public health-related data to provide local, state, and national situational awareness. Suspected poisoning, occupational illness and injury reports filed with the state workers' compensation agency are also tracked.
The Oregon Public Health Division maintains a variety of electronic informaton systems to ensure timely and coordinated care, including the secure, web-based Oregon Public Health Epidemiology User System, Orpheus, which integrates state and local reportable communicable disease data, the Electronic Laboratory Reporting System, the Environemtnal Public Health Tracking Program, disease registries, Vital Records, and the ALERT immunization informaton system.
The Oregon ESSENCE syndromic survellance system is rolling out across the state. Oregon ESSENCE processes data from emergency departments, the Oregon Poison Center, the Oregon Vital Records System and the public health communicable disease database to track population health trends.
Read more about the Preparedness Surveillance and Epidemiology Team.
