FY13 UK Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program

The University of Kentucky (UK) Research Foundation shall provide personnel to perform the functions of a Senior Epidemiologist/Evaluator (full time employee) for the Heart Disease and Stroke Program (HDSP). This position shall be responsible for the analysis of mortality data, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) data, population data, hospital discharge data, data from private insurers, Medicaid and Medicare, and data from various surveys conducted by the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) and local health departments (LHD) related to policy and systems change, and evaluate program initiatives. This position shall also present data to local, state, and national groups. A vital component of our program is evaluation to document that our state program is achieving our goals and progressing toward our intended long term outcomes. To ensure sufficient time is devoted to this aspect of our program we have added an evaluation component to the epidemiologist position. Since states are encouraged to use process evaluation methods to (1) evaluate how policy and environmental strategies were implemented, (2) evaluate the extent to which their program is being implemented as intended, and (3) determine whether their program is appropriately focusing its CVH efforts, especially toward priority populations, it is vital to have added 50% time allocated to this position to address the evaluation process.