Open Research Issues and Emerging Research Directions in Data Quality for Public Health

The topic of Data Quality (DQ) in the field of Information Management has been extensively researched. Within this field, DQ relevant for Public Health Administration has been relatively less explored. DQ research has traditionally focused on a select set of DQ factors (e.g. timeliness or accuracy etc.), however, advances in the field of Information Management triggered by emerging technology trends such as Big Data has warranted that DQ research be approached with fresh outlook to consider DQ factors relevant to these new technology trends. Moreover, data for effective intervention in the administration of Public Health is dependent on a tighter integration of data from multiple data sets within the Healthcare ecosystem. Thus, in Public Health it is not necessarily true that individual sets of data with good DQ does necessarily mean a comprehensive data set with good DQ, due to integration issues. DQ Research needs to be revisited to address these issues. This Paper analyses the various DQ issues on the above lines, outlines the research issues and recommends research directions in DQ for Public Health to address the above problems.