Introduction to Public Health Informatics
The transformation of public health by informatics is still in the nascent stages. Thus far, informatics in public health generally has been relegated to “pushing the broom” at the end of the parade: public health has tended to bring in informaticists to
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Introduction to Public Health Informatics J.A. Magnuson and Patrick W. O’Carroll
Abstract The transformation of public health by informatics is still in the nascent stages. Thus far, informatics in public health generally has been relegated to “pushing the broom” at the end of the parade: public health has tended to bring in informaticists to help resolve systemic issues such as non-interoperability, rather than realizing the full potential benefits that would accrue from their involvement at the outset. To facilitate the understanding of Public Health Informatics, this chapter includes a brief review of public health, discussing the purpose, history, structural organization, and challenges of public health. Once the context of public health has been reviewed, the principles of Public Health Informatics are described, including some history and background, and the challenges encountered, as well as the drivers for change. Although the discipline of public health informatics has much in common with other informatics specialty areas, it differs from them in several ways. These include (a) a focus on applications of information science and technology that promote the health of populations, rather than of individuals, (b) a focus on disease prevention, rather than treatment, (c) a focus on preventive intervention at all vulnerable points in the causal chains leading to disease, injury, or disability, and (d) operation within a governmental, rather than a private, context. Drivers of change forcing public health professionals to be conversant with the development, use, and strategic importance of computerized health information 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, USA e-mail: [email protected] P.W. O’Carroll, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACMI Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2201 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98105, 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_1, © Springer-Verlag London 2014
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J.A. Magnuson and P.W. O’Carroll
systems include health reform, advances in information technology, the advent of Big Data, and continuation of disruptive innovation. Keywords Big Data • Disruptive innovation • Electronic Health Record • Gene patenting • Healthy People • Informatician • Informaticist • Informatik • Informatique • Infrastructure • Meaningful use • Mobile technology • Open access • Personal health record • Personalized medicine • Prevalence • Preventability • Severity • Software as a Service • SaaS • Telehealth • Value • Variety • Velocity • Volume
Learning Objectives 1. Define the concept of public health informatics and explain the aspects that it has in common with medical informatics. 2. Understand the four principles that define, guide, a
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