NEW! FHOP is happy to announce the availability of the Perinatal Data Spreadsheets on the website. These spreadsheets provide numerator and denominator data for all of the perinatal indicators in the MCH County Data Book. For selected indicators, there is data by race, ethnicity, and age group. These numbers can be used to fill in the FHOP Perinatal Data Templates to allow statistical comparisons with the California State rates and Healthy People 2010 Objectives. The Templates also provide automatically generated trend charts. There are also tables that open easily in in Internet Explorer. Click here to see these documents. If you experience problems with the Perinatal Data Spreadsheets while using Netscape, please contact FHOP at (415) 476-5283.

NEW! Developing an Effective MCH Planning Process: A Guide for Local MCH Programs, has evolved from nine years of experience in a collaborative effort with the Maternal and Child Health Branch of the California Department of Health Services and the Family Health Outcomes Project. The purpose of this manual is to assist local public health agencies in conducting a needs-based, rational planning and resource allocation process. Although the processes described are generic to all planning efforts at the local level, the case examples are specific to Maternal and Child Health Programs that are required to conduct a formal needs assessment and planning process every five years in order to receive their annual block grant funds. Available on the FHOP website are Chapters 1 through 3 of the manual, and their respective Appendices. FHOP staff is putting the finishing touches on the remaining Chapters and Appendices, and will inform you when the manual is complete.

NEW! Please welcome Suzanne Ezrre to the FHOP team!! Suzanne joined us in February as our Web Administrator. We are excited to have Suzanne with us! If you have any suggestions or comments on our website, please email fhop@fcm.ucsf.edu.

Useful County Data Resources
The Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch of the California Department of Health Services publishes annual STD Surveillance Reports beginning in 1996 online. These reports contain data on Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis (including Congenital Syphilis), Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), Non Gonococcal Urethritis (NGU), and Chancroid. Included are county level maps of rates and tables for rates for local health jurisdictions. The year 2000 report can be found on the FHOP website. Also, on the FHOP website is a link to the STD Control Branch to view or download reports from previous years. To view, go to the FHOP Maternal and Child Health Data page. Some maps and tables that may be of particular interest are:Chlamydia: Figure 1-4, 1-6 and 1-14Gonorrhea: Figure 2-4, 2-6, and 2-14Syphilis: Figure 3-4,3-6,3-14, 3-15, 3-17, 3-21 and 3-22PID: Figure 4-1NGU: Figure 4.2Chancroid: Figure 4.3

Trainings
Community Assessment: Problem Prioritization and Analysis - March 26, 2003
A one-day training designed for MCH staff with limited exposure to Epidemiology and Statistics. The content of this training will focus on reviewing data on health indicators to identify problems, prioritizing identified health problems and the basic concepts and components of a problem analysis. For more information and to see more FHOP trainings, check out this year's Training Calendar.

THE SPOTLIGHT
New on FHOP's website are Guidelines for Searching PubMed. PubMed was developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and provides access to bibliographic information, which includes MEDLINE. These search guidelines, from the PubMed website, are intended to help you more effectively search for information on PubMed. Included is information on the different search fields, publications types, search terms, saving your searches and much more.

* Please let us know if you are aware of other data resources.

** Whenever you have a Technical Assistance question, please feel free to contact FHOP at (415) 476-5283. We are always happy to assist you!***