Board of Health

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Health Department

General Information

The Office of Public Health Information (OPHI)

 

The Office of Public Health Information is comprised of three unique sections: Health Education, Epidemiology, and Health Alert Network (HAN).

 

Health Education

Mission: The mission of the Health Educator is to promote and protect public health through the timely and accurate dissemination, distribution and communication of public health information.

 

Functions: The Health Education team of Canton City Public Health provides education and outreach to those living and working in the city of Canton Ohio.

  • Provides community level education in the form of presentations, health fairs, and speakers on at least the following topics:
    • Prevention of Communicable Diseases in a variety of settings
    • Lead
  • Partners with local grant initiatives including:
    • Safe Communities: The coalition members share resources and expertise to educate the public of the dangers of impaired driving and the safety provided by seat belts and child safety seats. Additionally, the coalition develops traffic crash data to share with law enforcement agencies and traffic engineers.
    • Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation grant: Spit tobacco (dip, chewing tobacco) prevention programming
    • Obesity Prevention

The Health Educator also acts as the department’s Public Information Officer. She prepares the annual report and issues media releases. PIO duties include emergency response planning in order to provide the public with clear, timely information during a health crisis.

 

To view regular reports from the Health Educator please visit the Publications section and to see information on specific educational resources and opporutnities visit the Education and Outreach page of this website.

 

Epidemiology

Mission: The overriding mission of the Epidemiology and Surveillance unit is to promote and protect public health through investigation, research and education.

 

Functions: The Epidemiology and Surveillance team provides reports and products to physicians, safety forces, residents, researchers, laboratories, school nurses, nurse practitioners, infection control practitioners and others upon request and availability.

  • Coordinate and conduct disease/outbreak investigations
  • Distribute reports, maps, and data
  • Provide topical information on existing, emerging, and/or potential health threats to medical care providers and the public
  • Monitor and support surveillance activities for reportable disease as well as potential disease clusters
  • Assist with designing, implementing, and analyzing surveys aimed at assessing the impact of select health conditions

To view regular reports created by the epidemiologist please visit the Publications section.

 

Health Alert Network (HAN)

Mission: To assure communications are maintained during a public health emergency.

 

Functions: Maintains a large data base of health providers and partners essential to the management of a health emergency. These partners include law enforcement, Red Cross, pharmacists, laboratories, government leaders, education, media, Fire and EMS Services, and many others.

 

The HAN system utilizes e-mail, Fax, telephone, the Stark County Emergency Notification System, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), radio's, and pagers. To view HAN messages, visit the Publications section.

 

The coordinator also provides and/or facilitates the training for these systems. Further, the coordinator promotes collaboration and expansion of the existing network through efforts in partnership with key public health response agencies.

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