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 defines 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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health’s infrastructure: a status report. Atlanta, GA: Department of Health and Human Services; 2001.
Baxter R, Rubin R, Steinberg C, Carroll C, Shapiro J, Yang A. Assessing core capacity for infectious diseases surveillance. 2000; www.lewin.com/content/publications/808.pdf. Accessed 8 Mar 2010.
Yasnoff WA, Overhage JM, Humphreys BL, et al. A national agenda for public health informatics. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2001;7(6):1–21.
National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. A strategy for building the national health information infrastructure. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2001.
Lober WB, Karras BT, Wagner MM, et al. Roundtable on bioterrorism detection: information system-based surveillance. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2002;9(2):105–15.
Buehler JW, Whitney EA, Smith D, Prietula MJ, Stanton SH, Isakov AP. Situational uses of syndromic surveillance. Biosecur Bioterror. 2009;7(2):165–77.
Lazarus R, Kleinman KP, Dashevsky I, DeMaria A, Platt R. Using automated medical records for rapid identification of illness syndromes (syndromic surveillance): the example of lower respiratory infection. BMC Public Health. 2001;1:9.
Gesteland PH, Gardner RM, Tsui FC, et al. Automated syndromic surveillance for the 2002 Winter Olympics. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2003;10(6):547–54.
Electronic Health Records Place 1st at Indy 500. NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. 2009;4(3):16–7. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/summer09/articles/summer09pg16-17.html.
Smith PF, Ross DA. Information, knowledge, and wisdom in public health surveillance. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2012;18(3):193–5.
Devore S, Champion RW. Driving population health through accountable care organizations. Health Aff (Millwood). 2011;30(1):41–50.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 111th Congress ed; 2009.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare and Medicaid programs; electronic health record incentive program – stage 2. Fed Regist. 2012. http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-21050_PI.pdf .
Smith PF, Hadler JL, Stanbury M, Rolfs RT, Hopkins RS. “Blueprint version 2.0”: updating public health surveillance for the 21st century. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2013;19:231–9.
Kirkwood J, Jarris PE. Aligning health informatics across the public health enterprise. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2012;18(3):288–90.
Dixon BE, Zafar A, Overhage JM. A framework for evaluating the costs, effort, and value of nationwide health information exchange. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2010;17(3):295–301.
Gotway Crawford CA, Okoro CA, Akcin HM, Dhingra S. An experimental study using opt-in internet panel surveys for behavioral health surveillance. ISDS annual conference proceedings. San Diego; 2012.
Massoudi BL, Goodman KW, Gotham IJ, et al. An informatics agenda for public health: summarized recommendations from the 2011 AMIA PHI conference. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2012;19(5):688–95.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Progress in immunization information systems – United States, 2011. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2013;62(3):48–51.
Grannis S, Dixon BE, Brand B. Leveraging immunization data in the e-health era: exploring the value, tradeoffs, and future directions of immunization data exchange. Atlanta: Public Health Informatics Institute; 2010.
Savage R. HL7 version 2.5.1 implementation guide for immunization messaging. 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/iis/technical-guidance/downloads/hl7guide-1-4-2012-08.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2013.
Effler P, Ching-Lee M, Bogard A, Ieong MC, Nekomoto T, Jernigan D. Statewide system of electronic notifiable disease reporting from clinical laboratories: comparing automated reporting with conventional methods. JAMA. 1999;282(19):1845–50.
Nguyen TQ, Thorpe L, Makki HA, Mostashari F. Benefits and barriers to electronic laboratory results reporting for notifiable diseases: the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene experience. Am J Public Health. 2007;97 Suppl 1:S142–5.
Overhage JM, Grannis S, McDonald CJ. A comparison of the completeness and timeliness of automated electronic laboratory reporting and spontaneous reporting of notifiable conditions. Am J Public Health. 2008;98(2):344–50.
Panackal AA, M’Ikanatha NM, Tsui FC, et al. Automatic electronic laboratory-based reporting of notifiable infectious diseases at a large health system. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002;8(7):685–91.
Lombardo JS, Buckeridge DL, editors. Disease surveillance: a public health informatics approach. Hoboken: Wiley; 2007.
Doyle TJ, Glynn MK, Groseclose SL. Completeness of notifiable infectious disease reporting in the United States: an analytical literature review. Am J Epidemiol. 2002;155(9):866–74.
Turner K, Ferland L. State electronic disease surveillance systems – United States, 2007 and 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2011;60(41):1421–3.
McDonald CJ, Huff SM, Suico JG, et al. LOINC, a universal standard for identifying laboratory observations: a 5-year update. Clin Chem. 2003;49(4):624–33.
Value Proposition for SNOMED CT. http://www.ihtsdo.org/snomed-ct/value-proposition-for-snomed-ct/. Accessed 28 Nov 2011.
Buehler JW, Sonricker A, Paladini M, Soper P, Mostashari F. Syndromic surveillance practice in the United States: findings from a survey of state, territorial, and selected local health departments. Adv Dis Surveill. 2008;6(3):1–20.
Doroshenko A, Cooper D, Smith G, et al. Evaluation of syndromic surveillance based on National Health Service Direct derived data – England and Wales. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2005;54 Suppl:117–22.
Wuhib T, Chorba TL, Davidiants V, Mac Kenzie WR, McNabb SJ. Assessment of the infectious diseases surveillance system of the Republic of Armenia: an example of surveillance in the Republics of the former Soviet Union. BMC Public Health. 2002;2:3.
Wu TS, Shih FY, Yen MY, et al. Establishing a nationwide emergency department-based syndromic surveillance system for better public health responses in Taiwan. BMC Public Health. 2008;8:18.
Jones NF, Marshall R. Evaluation of an electronic general-practitioner-based syndromic surveillance system – Auckland, New Zealand, 2000–2001. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2004;53 Suppl:173–8.
May L, Chretien JP, Pavlin JA. Beyond traditional surveillance: applying syndromic surveillance to developing settings – opportunities and challenges. BMC Public Health. 2009;9:242.
GAO. Emerging infectious diseases: review of state and federal disease surveillance efforts. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Accountability Office; 2004. GAO-04-877.
Comer KF, Grannis S, Dixon BE, Bodenhamer DJ, Wiehe SE. Incorporating geospatial capacity within clinical data systems to address social determinants of health. Public Health Rep. 2011;126 Suppl 3:54–61.
Reisinger SJ, Ryan PB, O’Hara DJ, et al. Development and evaluation of a common data model enabling active drug safety surveillance using disparate healthcare databases. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2010;17(6):652–62.
Pearson JL, Richardson A, Niaura RS, Vallone DM, Abrams DB. e-Cigarette awareness, use, and harm perceptions in US adults. Am J Public Health. 2012;102(9):1758–66.
Dixon BE, Gamache RE, Grannis SJ. Towards public health decision support: a systematic review of bidirectional communication approaches. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2013;20(3):577–83.
Dixon BE. The perceived and real value of health information exchange in public health surveillance [Dissertation]. Indianapolis, Indiana: School of Informatics, Indiana University; 2011.
Gamache R, Stevens KC, Merriwether R, Dixon BE, Grannis S. Development and assessment of a public health alert delivered through a community health information exchange. Online J Public Health Inform. 2010;2(2). http://ojphi.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/ojphi/article/view/3214/2638.
Lurio J, Morrison FP, Pichardo M, et al. Using electronic health record alerts to provide public health situational awareness to clinicians. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2010;17(2):217–9.
Lombardo JS, Garrett N, Loschen W, Seagraves R, Nichols B, Babin S. An informatics solution for informing care delivery of immediate public health risks to their patients. Online J Public Health Inform. 2009;1(1):1–15.
Biondich PG, Grannis SJ. The Indiana network for patient care: an integrated clinical information system informed by over thirty years of experience. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2004;Suppl:S81–6.
Zafar A, Dixon BE. Pulling back the covers: technical lessons of a real-world health information exchange. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2007;129(Pt 1):488–92.
Grannis SJ, Stevens K, Merriwether R. Leveraging health information exchange to support public health situational awareness: the indiana experience. Online J Public Health Inform. 2010;2(2). http://ojphi.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/ojphi/article/view/3213.
Overhage JM, Suico J, McDonald CJ. Electronic laboratory reporting: barriers solutions and findings. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2001;7(6):60–6.
Friedlin J, Grannis S, Overhage JM. Using natural language processing to improve accuracy of automated notifiable disease reporting. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2008:207–11.
Introduction to the PHIN notifiable condition mapping tables. Centers for Disease Control; Atlanta, GA; 2004. http://www.cdc.gov/phin/library/archive_2004/Introduction_to_the_PHIN_Notifiable_Condition_Mapping_Tables.pdf.
Wolfe BA, Mamlin BW, Biondich PG, et al. The OpenMRS system: collaborating toward an open source EMR for developing countries. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:1146.
Mamlin BW, Biondich PG, Wolfe BA, et al. Cooking up an open source EMR for developing countries: OpenMRS – a recipe for successful collaboration. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:529–33.
Mohammed-Rajput NA, Smith DC, Mamlin B, Biondich P, Doebbeling BN. OpenMRS, a global medical records system collaborative: factors influencing successful implementation. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2011;2011:960–8.
Kho AN, Lemmon L, Commiskey M, Wilson SJ, McDonald CJ. Use of a regional health information exchange to detect crossover of patients with MRSA between urban hospitals. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2008;15(2):212–6.
Kho AN, Dexter PR, Warvel JS, et al. An effective computerized reminder for contact isolation of patients colonized or infected with resistant organisms. Int J Med Inform. 2008;77(3):194–8.
Kho AN, Dexter P, Lemmon L, et al. Connecting the dots: creation of an electronic regional infection control network. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2007;129(Pt 1):213–7.
Kho A, Lemmon L, Dexter P, Doebbeling B. An operational citywide electronic infection control network: results from the first year. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2008:1222.
Institute of Medicine. The future of public health. Washington: National Academy Press; 1988.
Chen D, Doumeingts G, Vernadat F. Architectures for enterprise integration and interoperability: past, present and future. Comput Industry. 2008;59(7):647–59.
McHugh LA, Sorhage FE, Tan CG, Langer AJ. Effect of electronic laboratory reporting on the burden of lyme disease surveillance – New Jersey, 2001–2006. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008;57(2):42–5.
Public Health Informatics Institute. Taking care of business: a collaboration to define local health department business processes. Decatur: Public Health Informatics Institute; 2008.
Public Health Informatics Institute. Defining functional requirements for immunization information systems. Decatur: Public Health Informatics Institute; 2012.
Public Health Informatics Institute. Redesigning public health surveillance in an eHealth world. Decatur: Public Health Informatics Institute; 2012.
Dixon BE, Grannis SJ. Why “What Data Are Necessary for This Project?” and Other Basic Questions are Important to Address in Public Health Informatics Practice and Research. Online J Public Health Inform. 2011;3(3). pii: ojphi.v3i3.3792.
Russ AL, Weiner M, Russell SA, Baker DA, Fahner WJ, Saleem JJ. Design and implementation of a hospital-based usability laboratory: insights from a Department of Veterans Affairs laboratory for health information technology. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2012;38(12):531–40.
Dixon BE. Enhancing the informatics evaluation toolkit with remote usability testing. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2009;2009:147–51.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Competencies for public health informaticians. 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/informaticscompetencies/downloads/PHI_Competencies.pdf.
Kulikowski CA, Shortliffe EH, Currie LM, et al. AMIA Board white paper: definition of biomedical informatics and specification of core competencies for graduate education in the discipline. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2012;19(6):931–8.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag London
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dixon, B.E., Grannis, S.J. (2014). Public Health Informatics Infrastructure. In: Magnuson, J., Fu, Jr., P. (eds) Public Health Informatics and Information Systems. Health Informatics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4237-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4237-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4236-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4237-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)