- Explain why informatics and information technology are important to the public health mission.
- Describe the public health approach and the core sciences that support it.
- Define public health informatics and explain the bridging role of an informatician.
- Sequence the five basic stages used to create a public health information system.
- Distinguish the responsibilities of public health informaticians from those of IT professionals.
How the Public Health Cycle Works
Public health uses evidence, repeated assessment, and several connected sciences to define and address population health problems.
Modern public health must monitor outbreaks, interpret population data, and deliver important findings to health care providers, policymakers, communities, travelers, and the wider public. Informatics and IT support this work by helping people collect, manage, analyze, and communicate information.
The public health approach is logical and systematic. It starts by defining a problem through careful data collection. Decisions, interventions, scientific findings, and other products are evidence-based because they rest on analysis of collected facts.
- Define the problem through surveillance, which gathers information about a particular disease or condition.
- Determine risk factors by examining the data and identifying the problem's cause; this forms a basis for epidemiology.
- Assess possible interventions and establish methods that can limit the problem, prevent disease, and ideally remove its cause.
- Put the chosen science and methods into practice in real settings.
Sciences Supporting the Cycle
Five core sciences contribute to public health in a counterclockwise cycle.
- Surveillance and informatics are closely connected through data collection, analysis, and problem definition. Together, they provide the foundation for the approach.
- Laboratory work helps identify risk factors, including the virus, bacterium, or carrier factor involved.
- Epidemiology uses the facts and identified risks to establish preventive methods for controlling the problem.
- Prevention effectiveness applies the selected science and guidelines to curb the problem before the cycle continues.
The Mission and Meaning of Informatics
Public health informatics applies information disciplines and technology, while the informatician determines how those capabilities can address public health needs.
An organization such as CDC provides crucial scientific information to protect the nation from dangerous and costly health threats.
- Health care providers receive science, guidelines, and strategies for outbreaks and emergencies.
- Policymakers receive guidance for protective laws and measures, such as quarantine.
- The public receives education about prevention, including reducing risks related to influenza, water, and raw meat.
- Communities receive decision support, while travelers can learn about destination illnesses and needed vaccines or preparations.
That definition largely describes the application performed in an IT role. An informatician goes further by envisioning and defining where IT, information science, computer science, and technology can be applied to solve a public health problem.
An Architect as a Model for the Role
A public health professional who needs a system for collecting, managing, and analyzing information likewise begins with an informatician rather than a programmer, database administrator, network administrator, security specialist, or web designer. The informatician understands public health language, technological possibilities and limits, data standards, security, and the expertise needed to create the system.
A tuberculosis outbreak affects 10 states. CDC wants to expand awareness of the threat among the public and health care providers. Which subject should its information methods emphasize? A) Research B) Health information C) Security measure
B) Health information.
Public health informatics applies public health knowledge for which purpose? A) Expanding the knowledge base through learning B) Improving population health in everyday practice C) Advancing public health research D) All of the above
D) All of the above.
From a Public Health Need to a Working System
Creating a public health information system requires five ordered stages, with different contributions from public health, informatics, and IT.
A system should not begin with coding or hardware purchases. Its path from an initial public health need to useful analysis follows five basic stages.
Stage 1: Establish the Vision and Plan
Stage 2: Define Data Standards and Connections
The team must decide which data are needed and how they will be formatted. Existing information should not be collected again when new records can instead be linked to it.
For example, tuberculosis data can later be connected with demographic or HIV data only when compatible collection and coding methods are used. This must be planned before the system and its data collection process are built. Public health staff identify the required information, while informaticians contribute knowledge of health data standards; IT has less involvement in defining those standards.
Stage 3: Set Privacy and Security Requirements
Privacy obligations become clear after the necessary data are known. Names, birth dates, and addresses are private, so government mandates and HIPAA requirements must be considered before development because they shape the design.
Public health professionals and informaticians determine which policies, permissions, quality rules, and sharing conditions apply. IT professionals then put the protections into operation through measures such as user IDs, passwords, encryption, and access limits.
Stage 4: Design the Blueprint, Then Build
Once the vision, data, standards, inputs, outputs, and security rules are defined, the system components can be designed. The blueprint describes required hardware and software, the functions applied to the data, and how information enters, moves through, and leaves the system.
The informatician or systems analyst leads definition and design with some IT input. Programmers, database administrators, and system administrators then build, test, deploy, and operate the system from those specifications.
Stage 5: Turn Data into Decisions
The final purpose is to analyze, visualize, and track the collected information so it can guide decisions. Epidemiologists, statisticians, and other public health professionals interpret patterns and identify meaningful spikes. IT can supply analytical and visualization tools, while the informatician helps connect those tools to the analytical need.
When selecting technology for sharing national malaria data, what should an informatician consider first? A) Health data standards and integration B) Vision and systems planning C) System design and implementation
B) Vision and systems planning. The intended purpose, users, and overall form of the system must be understood before standards or development decisions are made.
Which three disciplines combine to represent data visually in a program such as FluView? A) Computer science, epidemiology, and public health B) Technology, computer science, and applied information methods C) Technology, surveillance system, and epidemiology
B) Technology, computer science, and applied information methods.
Separating Informatics from Information Technology
The boundaries overlap, but informaticians primarily define what a public health system must accomplish, while IT professionals implement and sustain it.
Public health, informatics, and IT do not have perfectly sharp boundaries. Their focus becomes clearer by comparing their contributions across the five system stages.
What the Informatician Contributes
- Plan and design public health information systems, define their scope, and specify functional requirements.
- Judge whether technology can support a public health goal and determine what should be used, where, and when; possessing technology alone does not guarantee a solution.
- Act as a liaison in a multidisciplinary team by translating between public health and IT, reducing costly errors caused by misunderstood requirements.
- Apply data and coding standards so information can interoperate across systems and yield more meaningful use.
- Maintain oversight of confidentiality, security, integrity, privacy, and data quality standards.
- Understand health data standards, sources, flows, and meaningful use, including electronic health records, electronic laboratory reports, health information exchanges, aggregators, and social media.
What the IT Professional Contributes
Programmers, database administrators, web developers or designers, communication specialists, and system administrators are among the IT professionals who implement and operate the technical solution.
- Plan technical projects and their milestones.
- Develop software, implement the supplied blueprint, and maintain and operate the resulting systems.
- Monitor performance, server availability and uptime, communication throughput, and access for intended users.
- Design, implement, and administer database architecture along with privacy, security, and backup procedures according to public health and informatics specifications.
How Responsibilities Shift Across the Five Stages
- Vision and planning require broad awareness of public health practice, enough technology knowledge to recognize possibilities and limits, and consultation with both public health and technical specialists.
- Public health professionals and informaticians define needed data and coding standards. Database design then involves informatics and relevant IT specialists, especially database administrators.
- Public health and informatics establish privacy, collection, quality, and sharing policies; IT implements access controls and other protections.
- Public health contributes definitions such as what constitutes a case, informatics shapes data flow and interoperability, and IT develops the system after receiving the blueprint.
- Public health expertise identifies meaningful patterns, informaticians connect needs across domains, and IT supports specialized analytical logic and tools.
A system displays infant mortality data and tracks progress toward a United Nations Millennium Development Goal. Who works with health data standards and sources while ensuring the integrity and security of standards? A) The informatician B) The information technologist
A) The informatician, who maintains oversight of privacy, integrity, and standards. The information technologist implements the specified technical measures.
Which option is NOT a public health informatician's function? A) Use data standards to support interoperability B) Ensure confidentiality, security, and integrity standards C) Design, implement, and administer database architecture, privacy, security, and backup procedures D) Understand health data standards, sources, and meaningful use
C) Design, implement, and administer database architecture, privacy, security, and backup procedures. The informatician defines requirements and specifications; IT professionals perform that implementation and administration.
Why These Roles Matter in Public Health
Contemporary public health depends on multidisciplinary information systems and on professionals who can connect health needs with specialized technical work.
Tracking disease, collecting and assessing data, evaluating interventions, and distributing information to practitioners and the public all rely on information and information technology. As systems become more complex, multiple IT specialties must contribute, and the informatician connects that technical expertise with the public health mission.
Common misconceptions
Watch out: The public health approach ends once an intervention has been implemented.
Instead: Implementation is followed by assessment and repetition. The process cycles back as needed until the problem is resolved.
Watch out: The presence of technology automatically means that a public health problem has a technological solution.
Instead: An informatician first evaluates whether technology has a useful role, then explains its opportunities, limits, and suitable application.
Watch out: A public health informatician personally programs the application and administers its databases, security, and backups.
Instead: The informatician defines the vision, requirements, standards, and blueprint. IT specialists build, administer, operate, and maintain the technical system.
Lesson recap
- Public health repeatedly moves through problem identification, risk-factor analysis, intervention development, implementation, and reassessment.
- Public health informatics systematically applies information, computer science, and technology to practice, research, and learning.
- The informatician bridges public health and IT by evaluating technology, defining requirements, coordinating disciplines, and overseeing data standards and protections.
- A public health information system progresses through vision and planning, data standards and integration, privacy and security, design and implementation, and analysis and visualization.
- IT professionals implement the blueprint, develop and administer its components, and keep the finished system available and working.