Annual Survey of Training Needs

ATTACHMENT B

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-0217

Expiration Date: __________________

Dear ________:

Each year, the Division of Vital Statistics (DVS), National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), offers several training courses to state and local health department staff working in the field of vital records and statistics. DVS is in the process of developing the training schedule for calendar year _____, based on the current needs and interests of the States. We attempt to provide the best mix of courses and locations, while simultaneously minimizing travel costs. Although there is no registration fee or tuition charge for these courses, NCHS cannot pay travel and per diem for your staff to attend.

To assist us in our planning, we would appreciate your indicating below how many staff you might send to each of the following courses. Your response is not binding, but it will help us develop a schedule of course offerings. We would appreciate your response by October 200_. Please send your response to ________ (____@CDC.GOV or fax: 301-458-4034).

Number of staff you wish to send to the following:

Vital Statistics Records and Their Administration - ______

Vital Statistics: Measurement and Production - _____

Advanced Topics in Mortality Statistics - ____

Cause-of-death Classification, Coding, and Analysis: ICD-10 Course for Statisticians - _____

Seminar for PC Managers - ______

SuperMICAR Data Entry - ______

Basic Underlying Cause of Death - ______

Basic Multiple Causes of Death - ______

Advanced Underlying Cause of Death - ______

Advanced Multiple Causes of Death - ______

Short descriptions of each course are shown below. More complete descriptions or outlines of most of the courses are shown in the attached ASCII and WordPerfect files.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 20 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of the collection of this information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to CDC/ATSDR Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS D-24, Atlanta, GA 30333, ATTN: PRA (0920-0217).

Vital Statistics Records and their Administration: This course focuses on the proper management and administration of a vital statistics records system. Topics include techniques for collecting, editing, querying, and completing vital records; processing and managing a vital records information system; certification and verification procedures; maintenance of a records system and guidelines for storage and retrieval; protecting confidentiality of vital records; controlling fraudulent use of vital records; interaction with the public; legislative and regulatory policies (duration 4.5 days).

Vital Statistics: Measurement and Production: This course provides an introduction to basic vital statistics measures including rate construction, standardization, and confidence intervals. It also discusses quality control and assessment and dealing with the media (duration 4.5 days).

Advanced Topics in Mortality Statistics: This course is designed to provide the conceptual basis for topics including stochastic variation and small numbers, age standardization, life table construction, multiple cause-of-death analysis, and comparability of cause of death (duration 3.5 days).

Cause-of-death Classification, Coding, and Analysis: ICD-10 Course for Statisticians: This course is an introduction to basic cause-of-death coding and classification, designed to acquaint students with both ICD-10 as well as related NCHS instruction manuals. Analytic topics will be presented, but not emphasized as much as coding and classification topics (duration 4 days).

Seminar for PC Managers: This course is designed to instruct Personal Computer managers for each State on how to manage mortality medical data entry and coding. The PC manager should be able to solve most problems with ACME, MICAR, and SuperMICAR in-house after completing the course (duration 3 days).

SuperMICAR Data Entry: This course provides intensive practical training using personal computers and the SuperMICAR software package. Trainees learn to recognize medical entities found on death certificates and key/enter these following MICAR rules. This input, processed by MICAR software routines, produces input for ACME (duration 2.5 days).

Basic Underlying Cause of Death: This course provides intensive practical training to develop skill in coding the underlying cause-of-death according to the ICD system of classification (duration 10 days).

Basic Multiple Causes of Death: This course provides intensive practical training in multiple cause-of-death coding in accordance with rules for use with the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME) System (duration 10 days).

Advanced Underlying Cause of Death Classification: This is a refresher course for coders with at least one year of experience in using ICD-10 to code underlying cause of death (duration 5 days).

Advanced Multiple Causes of Death Classification: This is a refresher course for experienced coders who have attended the Basic Multiple Causes of Death coding course (duration 5 days).

We recognize training needs may change in the course of a year. If your training requirements do change, we would appreciate your notifying the individual named above. We encourage your comments and suggestions on improving our training program.

Sincerely yours,

Director

Division of Vital Statistics

Enclosures: Course Outlines