Northrop Grumman - Defining the Future

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Our Public Health division is the largest IT contractor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Public Health NGIT PH Brochure

The Public Health division focuses on epidemiology, biostatistics, emergency preparedness and response, occupational and environmental health, and communications education. It is the largest IT contractor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With advanced health surveillance and outcomes research, Northrop Grumman Health & Human Services impacts public health with innovative quality monitoring and reporting. Public Health is:

  • Supporting national and global surveillance
  • Supporting outbreak investigation
  • Leading statistical modeling and analysis
  • Supporting surveillance, warnings, and ERCs
  • Building exposure assessment / tracking systems
  • Performing population-based research
  • Supporting behavioral health education
  • Conducting comprehensive disease reporting

The U.S. is facing new and changing public health issues. The Baby Boomers are reaching senior citizenship and creating new strains on the nation's healthcare systems. Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions. AIDS and other infectious diseases continue to cause thousands of deaths worldwide. In addition, the U.S.'s public health systems are increasingly being purposed for medical surveillance to combat possible bioterrorism despite disparities in the information they collect and share. As a result of these challenges, public health information sciences have emerged to augment treatment, education, surveillance, and care associated with diseases that impact our population. Through our support of the Government's public health mission, Northrop Grumman has become as leader in four public health information science areas: Public Health Informatics; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Behavioral Health and Health Education; and Environmental and Occupational Health.

The CDC currently draws one-twelfth of its professional workforce from the Health & Human Services unit. With more than 800 technical and scientific experts at CDC headquarters and worldwide, Northrop Grumman provides epidemiological support, research and data management, and health communication and delivery assessment for CDC programs. Additionally, Northrop Grumman uses this health and scientific expertise for systems development, requirements assessment, and knowledge management work. Northrop Grumman is also a longtime provider of public health communication, education, and disease prevention programs for obesity, HIV, asthma, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, smoking cessation, substance abuse, diabetes, and high blood pressure for National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the CDC.

Public Health Informatics

Northrop Grumman supports several CDC initiatives in public health informatics. Our proven success in providing the secure Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) speaks directly to our ability to develop software systems for long-term database management and analysis. States use BRFSS data on the health-related behaviors of adults to identify emerging health problems, to establish health objectives and track their progress toward meeting them, and to develop and evaluate public health polices and programs. Northrop Grumman also is designing and developing a Web-based data management and communication system (DMACS) to meet the data collection, management, and communication needs of the Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium's complex research projects needs. The Outbreak Management System for National Center for Public Health Informatics gives field epidemiologists and event response teams a standardized and centralized analysis tool to collect, manage, and analyze outbreak-related data remotely. Northrop Grumman also supports CDC's Public Health Information Network (PHIN), which enables the consistent exchange of response, health, and disease tracking data. PHIN comprises five key functions: detection and monitoring, data analysis, knowledge management, alerting, and response, with information systems that enable real-time data flow, computer-assisted analysis, decision support, professional collaboration, and rapid dissemination of information. Its messaging standards are based on Health Level 7 (HL7), XML, and Web Services. Its vocabulary standards are based on SNOMED and Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC).

In addition to supporting the CDC’s PHIN efforts, Northrop Grumman has delivered systems at the state and local level that implement these standards. For example, we designed and developed the Delaware Electronic Reporting and Surveillance System (DERSS), which reports disease investigation and surveillance data collected through the integration of public and private health information systems. A key component of Delaware’s public health and preparedness initiatives, DERSS allows public health officials to quickly analyze and identify trends in reported symptoms that might indicate disease outbreaks or potential threats to the public.

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Our epidemiology and biostatistics work is primarily at the CDC. Northrop Grumman provides scientific and statistical programming for more than 25 research efforts in five NCCDPHP Divisions. Such support requires a rare combination of advanced statistical skills, strong technical skills in SAS and SUDAAN, and a firm understanding of public health. For example, the Statistical Outbreak Detection Algorithm, developed for the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of the CDC, detects unusual clusters in pathogen information (salmonella, shigella and E. coli) by using a statistical quality control method called cumulative sums. In addition, our cancer registry modeling team is working with the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control to launch a pilot project that could reduce the cancer registry reporting to near real-time.

Behavioral Health and Health Education

The Health & Human Services unit has a long history of supporting behavioral health and health education, training, and communications programs for the federal government. Our staff has developed standards for data collection and analysis, and helped educate our research partners in proper protocols for gathering, handling, distributing, and analyzing data for the examination of complex behavioral and sociological parameters of population health for Healthy Passages, a CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health project. We also provide research support to the various federal agencies that fund mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention services. In support of these clients, we conduct evaluations of service delivery systems and client/patient outcomes, including coordinating multi-site studies. We also provide a full spectrum of research-related support activities, including preparing literature reviews, conducting environmental scans, and performing qualitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Our broad spectrum of domain expertise in health education includes:

  • Policy analysis and development
  • Program development
  • Communications and marketing
  • Technical assistance and training
  • Logistics
  • Web design, development, maintenance, and hosting
  • Database development and other IT systems assessment and development

For example, we currently maintain and support the CDC Office on Smoking and Health's (OSH)/Health Communication Branch's inquiry response systems. We develop publications and other communications media and were awarded the 2004 APEX Award for Publication Excellence for the CDC/OSH publication, Pathways to Freedom-Winning the Fight Against Tobacco. For SAMHSA, we manage the Model Program Dissemination Project, which plays a central role in bringing to communities nationwide programs that effectively address substance abuse and behavioral health issues.

Environmental and Occupational Health

Part of the public health mandate is addressing environmental and occupational health issues. The Spatial Epidemiology and Emergency Management System (SEEM) is a Web-based tool developed by Health & Human Services to perform rapid mapping and visualization of spatial epidemiologic data. Behind the user-friendly interface, SEEM is a complex GIS application integrating in new ways ArcIMS, ArcSDE and the spatial repository of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. SEEM relies on new and advancing technologies, such as XML and XSLT, and takes into consideration CDC and federal government standards to comply with the PHIN architecture and other metadata standards and requirements. The Defense Occupational Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS) is a comprehensive, automated information system for assembling, comparing, using, evaluating, and storing occupational personnel exposure information, workplace environmental monitoring data, personal protective equipment usage data, observation of work practices data, baseline medical examination data, and employee health hazard educational data. Northrop Grumman has provided software engineers, programmers, and an industrial hygienist who have undertaken requirements analysis, systems engineering analysis of existing databases and systems, and preliminary system design. We also work with the Defense Medical Surveillance System and the Defense Medical Epidemiological Database to provide pre/post deployment data, routine physical exam data, and records of all immunization and test results, including HIV/AIDS, for all active and reserve members of the military.

Summary

As a recognized expert in public health, we can help you with strategic leadership, direction, coordination, and assessment of activities to ensure preparedness for bioterrorism, outbreaks of infectious disease, and other public health threats and emergencies.
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