Public health informatics is the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. It is a subdomain of health informatics, the broader discipline of data management applied to medical systems, and spans three major operational domains: modeling complex processes such as disease transmission, storing public health data as a durable record, and analyzing that data for public dissemination. In the United States, data collection and management for the field is shared between federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments.
Facts
Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountWhat has to be collected, stored and analyzed, and how, for information and computer science to serve public health practice, research and learning rather than only individual patient records. 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountBecause funding for one shared national disease-surveillance system has been limited, only a few states and larger counties built their own separate electronic surveillance systems, and that fragmentation is itself a documented cost of leaving reporting to build up state by state. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Public Health Informatics
WikipediaLead section, first sentence
Public health informatics has been defined as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning.
Collection of public health data section
Due to the funding being limited and it not being wise to have fiefdom-based systems, only a few states and larger counties have built their own versions of electronic disease surveillance systems
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