Public Health Informatics & Information System

Public health informatics is the application of computer science and technology to all aspects of public health practice, learning and research. It involves the collection, storage and dissemination of public health information with an aim of finding preventative measures and promoting health in populations through the storage and transfer of information. Information systems are the computer systems through which the work is carried out.

Activities

• In the United States, the majority of the work is carried out at the state and local levels. Activities include the collection of important statistics about infectious diseases, disease reports and statistics collected from doctors' practices, vital statistics pertaining to births and deaths, hospital capacity information and information regarding investigation of infectious diseases to allow for adequate response to biological threats.

Purpose

• Comprehensive information systems allow for easy access to the information necessary to examine public health information for the purpose of monitoring emerging health trends such as developing outbreaks in certain populations or areas.

Use

• In 2005, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) made the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS) a freely available web-based information reporting system to all states in order to facilitate the reporting of health data from various partners within the health care system. Doctors practices, hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories were among the partners included. For example, as part of this process, local health partners must report infectious disease data to their state public health department on a regular basis. Weekly mortality and morbidity reports are generated in this way.