Shah GH

Objectives: To demonstrate the use of National Association of County & City Health Officials' Profile-IQ, a Web-based data query system, and how policy makers, researchers, the general public, and public health professionals can use the system to generate descriptive statistics on local health departments.

Design:  This article is a descriptive account of an important health informatics tool based on information from the project charter for Profile-IQ and the authors' experience and knowledge in design and use of this query system.

Accreditation has been identified as a crucial strategy for strengthening the public health infrastructure. As agencies prepare for accreditation, it is important to understand how intentions to seek accreditation are related to the current level of readiness based on the three Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) prerequisites.

Context/Objective: Resource sharing, arrangements between local health departments (LHDs) for joint programs or to share staff, is a growing occurrence. The post-9/11 influx of federal funding and new public health preparedness responsibilities dramatically increased the occurrence of these inter-LHD relationships, and several states have pursed more intrastate collaboration. This article describes the current state of resource sharing among LHDs and identifies the factors associated with resource sharing.