Making public health data available to community-level decision makers--goals, issues, and a case report.

Effective community health assessment and planning depends on the availability of appropriate public health data. Web-based technologies have created an unprecedented opportunity for making data available to community-level public health decision makers. An interactive data retrieval system targeted to the community-level user must provide an intuitive and easy-to-learn user interface with functionality and statistical complexity appropriate to the expected users while maintaining confidentiality of personal health information. The authors use the Missouri Information for Community Assessment Web site as an example to discuss goals and issues involved in the development of such systems.