The observatory: a model for studies in health, society, and the environment

The concept of an observatory for examining and monitoring trends for research in the social sciences and health arose from analogy with the facilities of astronomy and the realization that close and consistent observation was essential to understand interactions among determinants of health in a community. Their theoretical foundations are largely grounded in the "population health model," an intellectual framework developed in 1974 and associated with a movement called "the new public health." We developed an observatory for an affluent, unexceptional, suburban jurisdiction ("County 20") in the province of Alberta, in western Canada, and used it to study and monitor both normative and emergent issues in environmental health. The observatory was conceived as a utility, or multi-purpose vehicle, for describing and responding to emerging community issues quickly and gathering data and qualitative findings as required. Case studies on issues of local importance allowed us to observe the dynamics of community response comprehensively, using quantitative and qualitative methods as appropriate. Valuable insights gleaned from the cases studied pertained to risk perception, the NIMBY syndrome, and reorganizing and auditing public health services. It did less well when the object of study was further removed from the community of interest, when there was no clear action item to be recommended, and when sponsors had expectations for certainty that could not be supported by available data sources. The observatory eventually was merged into a community health outreach program. The local observatory model is a practical, low-cost, and sustainable model for capturing generalizable and specifically local case study experience on a small scale but is limited in its effectiveness and by the scope of its coverage. It can be an initial step toward longitudinal and community monitoring studies on a larger scale. The observatory model can be used to elevate the level of case studies, impose rigor on analysis, and compile case studies for comparative and analytical studies.