Urgent Challenges for Local Public Health Informatics
نویسندگان
چکیده
Good informatics improves public health. It enables public health agencies to be more responsive and productive. Improved accessibility to data can create more opportunities to improve health through partnerships, greater accountability, and improved efficiency. Informatics methods and approaches can address lack of timely data and enable quicker investigation of arising topics, from opioid abuse to factors related to school dropout. Advances in information technology and growing public expectations for accurate, real-time information have spurred the evolution of many local health departments (LHDs). Electronic databases increasingly store information about basic agency operations. Epidemiological data that were once collected manually are now captured and managed electronically. To help such changes occur, and to ensure that the systems created are helpful rather than burdensome, public health departments need organizational and workforce capabilities in informatics. This Journal of Public Health Management & Practice supplement highlights the current landscape of local public health informatics. Across the articles, we see 3 important, urgent challenges: (1) building informatics capabilities in smaller LHDs, (2) ensuring informed and consistent leadership, and (3) establishing effective training.
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