How does informatics improve public health

This information is required for effective public health work, and serves as the first step in large-scale analyses of diseases. But obtaining, exchanging and interpreting large amounts of data can often be difficult. How do we do it? Informatics synthesizes the theory and practices of computer science, information sciences, and behavioral and management sciences into methods, tools and concepts that lead to efficient information systems.

To improve population health, informatics enables effective monitoring and surveillance, ensuring that practitioners have access to timely and accurate data. Ultimately, public health informatics empowers disease interventions and prevention —leading to better health of individuals and the communities in which they live.

Health-e developments ; Smolij K, Dun K. Perspectives in Health Information Management [serial on the internet]. Schade CP. J Am Med Inform Assoc ; Bhorugram India : revisited A 4 year follow-up of a computer-based information system for distributed MCH services. Int J Med Inform ; Gupta R, editor. Universalising healthcare through telemedicine. Saxena G and Singh JP. E-medicine in India: - Hurdles and future prospects.

Planning Commission, Government of India [homepage on the internet]. New Delhi: Planning Commission; c Report of the working group on Health Informatics and telemedicine for the eleventh year plan ; [about 98 screens]. Thomas TK. Seem T. Another series of grants support HIE systems in states and advanced demonstrations for the use of exchange systems to improve care quality and public health outcomes in local areas BEACON grants.

Another program, the Program of Assistance for University-Based Training, is prepared to produce trained public health informaticians in universities during the next few years 6. Electronic real-time data regarding the environment e.

As public participation in submitting information into the World Wide Web increases often labeled Web 2. Several of these types of data have been used to derive signals of important health trends faster and more broadly than more traditional case reporting systems e.

One of the most valuable resources to be tapped is the diverse population of public health professionals formally trained or not who have already made informatics a priority in their work. These include staff at CDC and other federal agencies; state and local health departments, members of the Public Health Data Standards Consortium and informatics leaders in several public health associations, workers from all walks of public health life who attend Public Health Information Network meetings, university scholars of public health informatics, and staffs of nonprofit organizations like the Public Health Informatics Institute.

Representatives of these groups come together to harmonize an ongoing agenda for public health informatics at the Joint Public Health Informatics Taskforce, a coordinating body of several associations 9.

By educating leaders and peers, testing innovations, and disseminating lessons learned, these persons and agencies are improving public health surveillance and ultimately health outcomes by reducing costs, bridging silos, and improving access to timely, quality information.

These opportunities also represent a crisis: the move from manual reporting from traditional data sources to automated data collection from novel data sources has suddenly begun in earnest, and public health agencies will need to keep pace or risk gradually losing old systems of health event ascertainment and failing to achieve the benefits of new electronic reporting. Several steps can help public health agencies. ONC-specified standards to accept surveillance information from health-care providers should be adopted but will require changes to established surveillance and other information management systems.

Public health agencies with limited informatics support might find it valuable to work with academic centers or other agencies to facilitate their transition to the use of more standardized electronic data.

Using this form of data should, in time, enable them to reduce labor while increasing the sophistication of their analyses in both surveillance systems and response systems. Active collaboration on new information system and data collection initiatives can reap substantial benefits. To achieve the vision, certain key points must be addressed.

Stand-alone systems should be considered only when no other options are available. Existing systems including commercial off-the-shelf solutions should be used or modified wherever possible and existing data streams should be leveraged for multiple purposes. Rather than delaying work by striving to develop an ideal system, small, incremental steps should be considered rather than immediate wholesale changes.

Although time consuming, planning for evaluations of surveillance systems can affect both time and resource savings. Combining disparate sources and forms of information can provide a richer picture of disease burden than individual data streams.

Whenever possible, support staff should be enabled to sharpen their skills in fundamentals of public health informatics using local resources, online training, or national conferences.

Even with the best planning, problems will occur; detecting them as early as possible and addressing them immediately is essential. Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version.

An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U. Contact GPO for current prices. Skip directly to search Skip directly to A to Z list Skip directly to site content. Master of Science in Health Informatics. Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Health Informatics.

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