(a) In carrying out the purposes of this Act, the Department may: (1) Collect and maintain health data on: (i) The extent, nature, and impact of illness, including factors relating to asthma, obesity, and disability on the population of the State;(ii) The determinants of health and health hazards including asthma and obesity;(iii) Health resources, including the extent of available manpower and resources;(iv) Utilization of health care;(v) Health care costs and financing;(vi) Other health or health-related matters; and(vii) The connection between the long-term effects of childhood cancer and the original cancer diagnosis and treatment.(2) Undertake and support research, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting new or improved methods for obtaining current data on the matters referred to in subparagraph (1).(b) The Department may collect health data under authority granted by any unit of local government and on behalf of other governmental or not-for-profit organizations, including data collected by local schools and the State Board of Education relating to asthma and obesity on the health examination form required pursuant to Section 27-8.1 of the School Code. The data shall be de-identified and aggregated pursuant to rules promulgated by the Department to prevent disclosure of personal identifying information.(c) The Department shall collect data only on a voluntary basis from individuals and organizations, except when there is specific legal authority to compel the mandatory reporting of the health data so requested. In making any collection of health data from an individual or organization the Department must give to such individual or organization a written statement which states: (1) Whether the individual or organization is required to respond, and any sanctions for noncompliance;(2) The purposes for which the health data are being collected; and(3) In the case of any disclosure of identifiable health data for other than research and statistical purposes, the items to be disclosed, to whom the data are to be disclosed and the purposes for which the data are to be disclosed.(d) Except as provided in Section 5, no health data obtained in the course of activities undertaken or supported under this Act may be used for any purpose other than the purpose for which they were supplied or for which the individual or organization described in the data has otherwise consented.(e) The Department shall take such actions as may be necessary to assure that statistics developed under this Act are of high quality, timely, comprehensive, as well as specific, standardized and adequately analyzed and indexed.(f) The Department shall take such action as is appropriate to effect the coordination of health data activities, including health data specifically relating to obesity collected pursuant to Section 27-8.1 of the School Code, within the State to eliminate unnecessary duplication of data collection and maximize the usefulness of data collected.(g) The Department shall (1) participate with state, local and federal agencies in the design and implementation of a cooperative system for producing comparable and uniform health information and statistics at the federal, state, and local levels; and (2) undertake and support research, development, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting such cooperative system.Amended by P.A. 100-0238,§ 10, eff. 1/1/2018.Amended by P.A. 098-0891,§ 5, eff. 1/1/2015.Amended by P.A. 093-0966, § 10, eff. 1/1/2005.