Abstract
Previously, I suggested epidemiology as a core and basic fundamental science for men’s health. Men’s health epidemiology is the study of the determinants and distribution of men’s health issues. In the May editorial, I suggested that “big data” will increasingly be utilized to promote men’s holistic health, patient-centered, and evidence-based practice to improve men’s health outcomes and health care systems. Epidemiology will increasingly use “big data” to promote health care provider and health care administrator decision making. These decision-making processes are dependent on valid and reliable men’s health data. Valid and reliable men’s health data can be secured through the development of men’s health surveillance systems.
Surveillance systems provide for the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data regarding an identified health event as a means to reduce morbidity and mortality, while improving overall health outcomes and health care systems and practices (German et al., 2001). Men’s health needs better surveillance systems directed at men’s specific health issues. To assist with developing and improving a men’s health surveillance systems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has proposed six tasks essential in evaluating surveillance systems. These tasks consist of (1) engaging men’s health stakeholders, (2) describing the men’s health surveillance system needed, (3) designing an evaluation plan, (4) collecting credible surveillance system performance evidence, (5) stating recommendations and conclusions, and (6) disseminating and using evaluation findings to improve the men’s health surveillance system. Each task will be further described below:
Stakeholder engagement: Men and men’s health care providers need to be actively involved in the development and improvement of the surveillance system.
Surveillance system: The following aspects of the surveillance system need to be described, evaluated, and defined: purpose; relevant men’s health issues for surveillance; surveillance objectives; legal authority; operational procedures; overall surveillance system and processes for data generation, collection, and analysis; resources needed (human, fiscal, physical); policies and procedures; and significance and importance of the men’s health events under surveillance to the overall health of men and the entire population.
Evaluation design: Involvement of stakeholders in both outcome and process related evaluation methods.
Evidence collection: The surveillance data collected should be evaluated in relation to the attributes of simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, sensitivity/specificity, predictive value positive/negative, representativeness, timeliness, and reliability (stability) over time.
Conclusions and recommendations: The evaluative evidence should be analyzed, synthesized, and interpreted to formulate meaningful conclusions and recommendations about improvements in the surveillance system itself and for men’s health practice and health care systems.
Dissemination: sharing lessons learned with men’s health providers further builds core information regarding rudimentary men’s health science of epidemiology.
So my call to action is to review and evaluate your existing men’s health practice and systems from both patient provider and health care systems perspectives. This can provide us with a sound epidemiological and evaluative framework from which to make evidence-based decisions based on surveillance data and sound surveillance systems.