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        <TITLE>NM-IBIS Background</TITLE>

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                <h2>Indicator-Based</h2>
                <p>
                NM-IBIS stands for New Mexico's Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health. 
                Outcome measures found in the NM-IBIS System are indicators of important public 
                health constructs. 
                </p>
                
                The New Mexico Department of Health regularly examines outcome 
                measures to:
                <ul>
                        <li>Track and evaluate progress toward goals.</li>
                        <li>Guide policy decisions, priorities and long-range strategic plans.</li>
                        <li>Develop, focus, and streamline data collection and reporting capacity.</li>
                        <li>Provide comprehensive information of New Mexico's health and health care system.</li>
                </ul>

                <p>
                The Department is working to standardize health status and health system indicators 
                across programs, and to publish those indicators.   
                </p>

                <h2>Public Health Assessment</h2>
                In 1988, the Institute of Medicine proposed government had a three-pronged role in 
                public health: 
                <ol>
                        <li>to develop policy that supports the health of populations,</li>
                        <li>to assure access to health care and the quality of that care, and </li>
                        <li>to assess the health status of the population.</li>
                </ol>

                <p>
                Public health assessment is the regular and systematic collection, assembly, analysis, 
                and  dissemination of information about the health of persons living in the State of 
                New Mexico and its communities. An understanding of the health status of a population is 
                necessary to plan, implement, and evaluate public health programs.
                </p>

                <p>
                The U.S. Public Health Service responded to the need for accurate and timely public 
                health assessment by instituting the <a href="http://www.healthypeople.gov"> HealthyPeople2030 
                health objectives</a>. They recommend public health entities regularly 
                and systematically track population health against those objectives. 
                </p>

                <h2>New Mexico's Assessment Capacity</h2>
                Over the past decade, the New Mexico Department of Health has substantially improved its <br/>
                assessment capacity by: 
                <ol>
                        <li>establishing the Community Health Assessment Program to support and  
                                coordinate public health assessment activities across the Department,
                        </li>
                        <li>affording easy access to major data bases and developing methods to 
                                analyze the data, including development of innovative 
                                information systems, and
                        </li>
                        <li>substantially improving the use of health information to guide health
                                policy decisions and evaluate our efforts to assure the health of New Mexicans.
                        </li>
                </ol>

                <h2>Why an IBIS?</h2>
                <img src="contentfile/image/about/thoth.gif" style="display: block; float: left; padding-right:16px;"/>
                <p>
                An ibis is the symbol for the ancient Egyptian god Thoth. He was often depicted 
                as an ibis-headed man holding a pen and a palette. He was the god of writing and 
                learning, wisdom, and many other things. Some sources say he was god of magic and
                medicine (which were not distinct concepts in ancient Egypt). Thoth is also credited 
                with the invention of writing and numbers.<br/>
                </p>
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