Sampling Methodology
An electronic database of LHD directors in New England was created utilizing the NACCHO Directory of Programs [9]. The survey was created by employing an electronic survey tool developed by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) called SurveyCat. SurveyCat is UNH’s online
survey system. The invitation letter to participate in the survey was e-mailed to the LHD director. The invited respondent was asked to access the survey by clicking on a hyperlink to open the electronic survey. The participant’s responses were saved directly to space designated on the UNH server. In general, the survey sought demographic and general health department information, as well as details of any existing partnerships/relationships with academic institutions (or faculty members) and specific educational activities. The survey took 10–15 min to complete and participation was entirely voluntary. The instrument used skip logic to allow respondents to not answer all questions. Therefore, the denominator for responses to each
question only reflects respondents that chose to answer that question.