Public Health Informatics Infrastructure

Abstract

To monitor and protect communities, societies create public health infrastructures. A capable, prepared public health infrastructure possesses a skilled public health workforce, robust information and communications technologies (ICT), and effective organizations. Yet there are numerous challenges facing public health agencies that seek to update and evolve the public health infrastructure, including budget constraints, rapidly changing ICT, and increased demands on public health workers. To meet the challenges facing public health, organizations must implement a technical architecture that enables integration across information siloes in public health. Organizations must also redesign work processes and system interfaces to support changing work patterns in public health. Finally, public health informaticians must emerge as leaders who can build and support the evolving public health infrastructure. This chapter defi nes the public health infrastructure , the challenges facing its implementation, and the core components that will help drive public health organizations to meet current and future information needs. Keywords Public health infrastructure • Information architecture • Immunization information system • Electronic laboratory reporting • Syndromic surveillance • Bidirectional communication • Business process analysis • Usability • Health information exchange • Accountable care organization • Electronic health record system • Public health informatician • Service-oriented architecture Overview To monitor and protect communities, societies create public health infrastructures. A capable, prepared public health infrastructure possesses a skilled public health workforce, robust information and communications technologies (ICT), and effective organizations. Yet there are numerous challenges facing public health agencies that seek to update and evolve the public health infrastructure, including budget constraints, rapidly changing ICT, and increased demands on public health workers. To meet the challenges facing public health, organizations must implement a technical architecture that enables integration across information siloes in public health. Organizations must also redesign work processes and system interfaces to support changing work patterns in public health. Finally, public health informaticians must emerge as leaders who can build and support the evolving public health infrastructure. This chapter defi nes the public health infrastructure, the challenges facing its implementation, and the core components that will help drive public health organizations to meet current and future information needs.