History and Significance of Information Systems and Public Health
From the earliest development of counting and counting machines to today’s sophisticated public health systems, a fundamental problem of public health practice has been the development of systems that can collect and analyze data, then convert it to usefu
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History and Significance of Information Systems and Public Health John R. Lumpkin and J.A. Magnuson
Abstract From the earliest development of counting and counting machines to today’s sophisticated public health systems, a fundamental problem of public health practice has been the development of systems that can collect and analyze data, then convert it to useful forms. The development of modern mechanical measuring devices was a quantum leap toward solving the problem, but even after the invention of the computer in the twentieth century, there was a continuing need for systems that would maximize integration of system components and minimize duplication of data entry. A review of the three waves of modern federal-state public health system development reveals the progression toward the optimization goal. In general, today’s systems to manage public health data and information have evolved in step with the scientific basis underlying public health practice, a practice that integrates findings in the biomedical field with the sciences of epidemiology and biostatistics. Keywords Data • Information • Knowledge • Age of observation • Age of analysis • Software reuse • Public health data collection • Federal-state system development • Public health information system development
J.R. Lumpkin, MD, MPH (*) Health Care Group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Route 1 & College Road East, Princeton, NJ 08543, USA e-mail: [email protected] J.A. Magnuson, PhD Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, 5th Floor, Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC), 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland, OR 97239-3098, USA e-mail: [email protected] J.A. Magnuson, P.C. Fu, Jr. (eds.), Public Health Informatics and Information Systems, Health Informatics, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-4237-9_2, © Springer-Verlag London 2014
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J.R. Lumpkin and J.A. Magnuson
Learning Objectives 1. Clearly differentiate among the terms data, information, and knowledge, and provide an example of each. 2. Briefly trace the evolution of information systems, from the development of counting and counting machines to the development of computers. 3. Explain and distinguish between the three stages in development of public health information management systems. 4. List and discuss the nineteenth century developments in Europe and the United States that contributed to the development of modern public health data collection and analysis. 5. List and describe the characteristics of the three waves of federal-state public health information system development.
Introduction Today’s systems to manage public health data and information have evolved in step with the evolution of the scientific basis underlying public health practice. Public health practice now integrates findings in the biomedical field with the sciences of epidemiology and biostatistics. As the need for knowledge integration has become more complex, so has the nature of the information systems necessary for acquisition and understandin
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