Graduate Student Internship Program

2008 Catalog of Internship Opportunities

This internship has been filled.

Data Manager

Program: Birth Defects Reporting and Information System (BDRIS)
Office for Genetics and Children with Special Health Care Needs
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, MD
Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Agency Information

The Birth Defects Reporting and Information System (BDRIS) serves as a platform to identify infants with birth defects through passive ascertainment, that is birth facilities, largely hospitals are mandated by Maryland Health - General Article Annotated Code of Maryland 18-206 to report sentinel birth defects and urged to report all recognized or suspected birth defects. By identifying populations of children with selected birth anomalies and their associated special health care needs, developmental delays or disabilities and determining their geographic distribution, BDRIS can provide the information needed for the optimal allocation and placement of service resources and disseminate appropriate information to service providers and families with affected children, assisting them to access community resources. This internship offers an opportunity to work with public health data systems, including the Birth Defects Reporting and Information System’s newly established free-standing MS Access database, Vital Statistics, and the Geographic Information System. The intern will work with the birth defects nurse, a pediatric geneticist, personnel from the Vital Statistics Administration, personnel from the Environmental Public Health Tracking project and inhouse epidemiologists. The intern will assist in the acquisition of core health data and its compilation, display and analysis, learning the foundation and fundamentals of public health data usage.

Purpose, goals, and objectives of internship

The purpose of the BDRIS internship is to launch a new component of the Birth Defects database. The Birth Defects database now has the capability to electronically match birth defects reports with Vital Statistics records and identify non-matched or mismatched birth defects reports. Electronically matching the data in the birth defects reports with the data in Vital Statistics will enhance BDRIS’s capacity to verify and reconcile data. The data will be used to determine birth prevalence rates and distributions in Maryland of selected birth defects. The intern would work with Robert Hayman, Ph.D. in the Vital Statistics Administration, on data matching, verification, and reconciliation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is clearly the emerging technology of health data display. Jim Thomas, head GIS of the will provide support for projecting reconciled data with GIS system maps and using GIS analyses features. Susan R. Panny, MD, Director, Office for Genetics and Children with Special Health Care Needs (OGCSHCN), and Anne D. Terry, RN, Nurse Consultant, BDRIS, will monitor and mentor the intern. The goal of the internship is to produce a BDRIS Annual Report.

Data or analytic tasks and activities

The intern will work directly with Dr. Bob Hayman, of the Vital Statistics Administration to launch the electronic records matching and data verification functions of the new BDRIS database.* The Vital Statistics Administration captures medical data, specifically birth defect information, on birth certificates and fetal death certificates. The intern will work with designated personnel from the Geographic Information System Division to project data geographically. The intern will prepare the tables required for the annual report and analyze the data to test for significant variations from baseline rates. The intern will work with Susan R. Panny, MD, a pediatric geneticist, who will provide primary mentorship. The intern will work with Anne Terry, RN, who will provide fulltime support and coordination with the other units involved in health information data management.

*The Vital Statistics Administration is relocating from the State Office Complex which houses the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to offices on Patterson Avenue. There is transportation point to point via the Metro Rail System with a station at the State Office Complex and a station at Reisterstown Road Plaza and Patterson Avenue.

Data or analytic skills required

The primary software application is Microsoft Access. The BDRIS database was designed and developed by John Spencer, Systems Analyst, from the Center for Health Program Development and Management (CHPDM) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus (UMBC). Mr. Spencer has provided a step-by-step operating handbook entitled Integrating Birth Certificate Data into the BDRIS Database, including a section on Introduction to the Problem. In addition, Mr. Spencer has developed an ADHOC QUERY TOOL manual available to the intern to further explore the application of data to needs assessment. Mr. Spencer will be available to answer questions on a limited basis. The intern should have an appreciation for database applications, and prior experience with MS Access would accelerate the intern’s ability to focus on data management and data applications.

As an adjunct to the interns activities in data management, John T. Braggio, PhD, MPH, the Environmental Public Health Tracking Coordinator, is available on an as needed basis for brief consultations on data integrity.

Supervisors

Direct supervision and support will be provided by Anne Terry, RN, the nurse consultant for BDRIS. Ms. Terry is responsible for capturing birth defect data in a timely manner from 38 hospitals throughout Maryland, medical coding using ICD-9-CM codes, and maintaining data entry into the MS Access database,, Oversight and mentor activities will be provided by Susan R. Panny, MD, Director, Office for Genetics and Children with Special Health Care Needs.

Internship begins

As early as possible