Department of Health
Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan
The Department of Health (DOH) is responsible for preserving public health; monitoring health care costs; maintaining minimum standards for quality health care delivery; and planning activities related to the health of Washington State citizens. The goals of Washington's Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan are to prevent initiation of tobacco use in youth and young adults, promote quitting among youth and adults, eliminate exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, and identify and eliminate tobacco use disparities and effects on different populations. Washington's tobacco prevention plan is based on successful programs in other states such as Massachusetts, Florida and California.

To track their recently awarded Tobacco Settlement Funds, our customer wanted a computerized system that would combine two distinct activities under one umbrella.

First, they needed an efficient and easily accessible web-enabled system to track contract management activities and services provided by vendors statewide. In analysis sessions we detemined that the data collection and reporting tool would need to automate the creation of intervention plans, measure the effectiveness of intervention efforts, track intervention contractor's progress, and allow states to manage the distribution of funds. It would also need to be used by vendors and state administrative staff simultaneously, allowing for different levels of access to sensitive information and access to real time data while preventing duplicate entries.

Secondly, the staff also wanted a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of programs by testing program participants with customized surveys. They wanted an effective way to generate program survey results quickly in order to increase the usefullness of survey data and to provide an accurate picture of prevention program effectiveness. Smoking interventionists wanted to compare their custom designed intervention activities with the outcome of a planned event, enabling staff to reach susceptible population groups with maximum effectiveness.

Starling Consulting developed a dynamic, web-enabled database designed to be easily maintainable and intuitive for the user. Catalyst automates the creation and tracking of smoking intervention activities and enables interventionists to dynamically design and customize intervention plans, data collection forms, activities and reports. It is designed to allow comparisons between custom designed intervention activities and planned event outcomes, thus providing staff with a tool to better address the needs of susceptible population groups.

We designed the system for multiple page data entry maintenance that updates the database only once per record verses once per line entry. This method is more secure and reliable than conventional approaches to data entry via the Internet and it allows for a more complete transaction which lessens mistakes in data entry. We also simplified the job of data entry by adding a data validation feedback feature, making it easier to find and navigate to data entry mistakes. We built Catalyst to provide secure access for various users, such as service providers, regional administrators and state headquarters personnel allowing for different levels of access to sensitive information and access to real time data while preventing duplicate entries.

Catalyst includes pre- and post- intervention testing, thus addressing the needs of at-risk populations and further supporting the goal of smoking cessation. The predetermined and ad-hoc report system provides an immediate method of transforming raw data into meaningful information that can be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of prevention program planning, education, and intervention services.

< Increases efficiency and accuracy of the management of outreach prevention program contract management.
< Provides instant access to data from any Internet ready computer while maintaining a high degree of security.
< Increases effeciency and reduces errors in data entry, tracking and reporting.
< Increases flexibility of administrators and researchers to quickly create customized testing instruments.
< Gives prevention providers instant reporting capability, increasing both the accuracy of data and the speed of test results return.

The Catalyst system consists of a combination of browser-enabled screens to provide a web-based tool for creating and tracking intervention and education plans or activities, and client/server screens for back-end maintenance of utility tables. The technologies used to create Catalyst are SQL7, IIS, PowerBuilder, VB Script, Java, Java Script, HTML, and ASP.