Public Health Informatics Coordinator

This Job Posting closes at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Monday, April 9, 2018.

Annually: $68,740.17 - $86,959.51

Hourly:     $33.04 - $41.80

Join us to take advantage of our excellent benefits and compensation package! In addition to competitive wages, Clackamas County offers an attractive benefits package including contributions paid to the State Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), and a deferred compensation account.

In addition to competitive wages, Clackamas County offers an attractive benefits package for employees in regular status positions.

This is a full time County position represented by the Employees' Association.

Employees' Association (EA) Full Time Benefits

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Clackamas County Public Health Division's Center for Public Health Advancement is seeking a Public Health Informatics Coordinator to lead the development of essential public health informatics and spatial analysis activities across the Health, Housing, and Human Services (H3S) / Public Health Division. The Public Health Informatics Coordinator (classified as Public Health Data Analyst) will provide guidance to staff across all program areas on how to integrate public health informatics, visualization and spatial analysis tools to improve the agency’s capacity to: conduct disease and population health surveillance; respond to public health emergencies; implement evidence-based public health programs & interventions; work with partners across sectors to improve the health of local communities; and develop public health policy.

The Clackamas County Department of Health, Housing and Human Services (H3S) is one of the largest departments in Clackamas County, serving tens of thousands of people. HS3 includes the following divisions: Behavioral Health, Children, Youth & Families, Community Solutions, Health Centers, Housing & Community Development, Social Services and Public Health.

Every day, the Clackamas County Public Health Division works to promote health, prevent disease, and advance public health practice. In 2014, The Public Health Division became a nationally accredited local public health provider. The national accreditation program is a rigorous peer-review assessment that ensures that local public health providers meet or exceed a specific set of quality standards and measures. Clackamas County was the fourth county in Oregon to be nationally accredited and one of the first 50 accredited county public health providers in the U.S. There are now 163 accredited local public health providers in the U.S.

Public health in Oregon is changing. The main catalyst for this change is Oregon House Bill 3100, Public Health Modernization, passed in July 2015. This House Bill sets forth a path to modernize Oregon’s public health system so that it can more proactively meet the needs of Oregonians by 2023 (Oregon Health Authority, 2016). Over the past 15-months, the Clackamas County Public Health Division has successfully implemented a comprehensive restructuring effort to align staff as well as foundational programs and capabilities with the Public Health Modernization law.  

The creation of this position is being leveraged through current funding via the state's Public Health Modernization initiative, which requires Local Public Health Authorities across Oregon to fully implement updated state public health statutes by June 2023.  The current phase of funding is focused on enhancing communicable disease surveillance systems & reporting.

The Public Health Informatics Coordinator will be responsible for enhancing and linking existing public health data, creating new public health data where informatics approaches are needed, and expanding the County’s Health Equity Zone initiative for the H3S / Public Health Division. The position will be expected to work with a variety of state, regional & local partners.

Required Minimum Qualifications/ Transferrable Skills:*

• Master's degree from an accredited school with at least 7 years of experience in computer science, epidemiology, biostatistics, demography, geography or related field
• Experience in a public health environment related to applied research & data analysis
• Experience applying informatics to public health activities
• Knowledge of developing and implementing strategic public health surveillance and data collection systems
• Knowledge of how to create and manage large public health datasets applying principles of ethical and legal practices related to public health work
• Skill to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with public and private partner agencies
• Proficiency in statistical software packages, such as Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and R software
• Proficiency in geospatial mapping systems, such as ArcGIS
• Effective verbal and written communication skills
• Experience preparing clear and concise report
• Must successfully pas a pre-employment drug test
• Must successfully pass a criminal history check which may include national or state fingerprint records check
• Driving may be required for County business on a regular basis or to accomplish work. Incumbents must possess a valid driver's license, and possess and maintain an acceptable driving record throughout the course of employment. Accommodation requests for an acceptable alternative method of transportation will be reviewed on an individual basis in compliance with State and Federal legislation. Specific information on the County's driving policy can be found at Driving and Vehicle Policy (EPP 52) .

Preferred Special Qualifications/ Transferrable Skills:*

• Knowledge of federal, state and local laws applicable to the provision of public health services
• Experience planning, exercising or responding to public health emergencies
• Ability to lead the work of others through large and complex projects
• Experience with performance measurement and process improvement activities
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including MS Word, MS Excel, and MS Outlook

*For Veterans qualified for Veteran’s Preference: If you believe you have skills that would transfer well to this position and/or special qualifications that relate to this position, please list those skills and/or qualifications in the open-ended question at the end of the application and explain how those skills and/or qualifications relate to this position.

Duties may include but are not limited to the following:

1. Develops and implements public health geo-spatial research to identify and apply spatial analysis; creates spatial analysis outputs, data management, and validation by leveraging and extrapolating diverse sets of data for use in program and policy decision-making; creates new data, where needed, using informatics approaches to enhance public health surveillance and practice; conducts reproducible statistical analyses in the R language, including extensive use of public health geospatial tools.
2. Designs and maintains databases that link existing public health data; leads the development of mapping digital surveillance capacity of the Public Health Division using a wide range of sources including digital epidemiological approaches, community-produced data, environment health indicators, geographic coordinates, and other sources; enhances existing traditional and digital surveillance to gather, display, and manipulate geographic imagery.
3. Coordinates and facilitates work related to public health informatics and population health epidemiology; assesses needs of the team and works with management to obtain resources; provides guidance to program staff on how to integrate informatics and spatial analysis tools in disease and population health surveillance, emergency response, public health programs and interventions, social     determinants of health, program, and policy activities; provides oversight of data management and data processing to ensure high quality data across division; may lead the work of division staff, assign daily tasks; leads daily huddles.
4. Leads quality improvement work using Lean process improvement techniques; incorporates feedback and resources and modifies as needed operating procedures for all surveillance, identification, response, and surge activities; ensures compliance with professional standards.
5. Organizes and documents findings; writes clear and concise report narratives, statistical summaries and spatial data analysis for internal and external stakeholders, including Board of County Commissioners; makes oral presentations to diverse audiences.
6. Evaluates new software and recommends implementation strategies; researches changes, trends, and technologies related to the needs of Public Health Division.

Thorough knowledge of:

Scientific research methods, statistical techniques, mathematics, geographic concepts and their application to data analytics; federal, state and local public health reporting requirements; the causes, prevention and early detection of infectious & chronic diseases.

Working knowledge of:

Applied public health research methodology and frameworks; different methodologies for applying informatics to create and manage large public health datasets; a variety of software products including word processing, graphic design, spreadsheets, databases, statistical software packages and visualization tools; principles and practices of project management; principles of performance management, including performance measurement and improvement activities.

Skill to:

Maintain confidentiality and adhere to the highest of ethical and moral standards in the conduction of a scientific inquiry process; Operationalize, connect and visualize public health informatics, GIS, epidemiology, statistical software and data collection methods; establish and maintain effective working relationships with people of differing perspectives and disciplines in and out of the organization; work autonomously with little or no direct supervision in the development and implementation of a project; demonstrate use of sound judgment in determining when to seek additional help; confer with community professionals about issues of public health significance; communicate effectively, both orally and in writing; communicate detailed verbal and written presentations; promote effective teamwork; develop, justify and ensure completion of project within budget, time and legal guidelines; coordinate and review work of assigned project staff.

This position is included in the County’s alternate workweek program, working 40 hours during a standard workweek of Monday through Thursday (Fridays off). Specific hours of work will be discussed with the candidate selected for this position at the time an offer of employment is extended.