- Savel T., Foldy S. (July 27, 2012). The Role of Public Health Informatics in Enhancing Public Health Surveillance. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 7, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6103a5.htm
Several federal projects have been conducted successfully that share restricted data with other agencies and nongovernmental organizations. For example, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has an ongoing relationship with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to link their data to health-survey data and vital statistics data. All governmental data collection and relative activities are governed by rules, regulations, and legislative authorizations. For example, Section 308 (d) of the Public Health Service Act (2) limits the release of the sensitive surveillance data that are either identifiable or potentially identifiable for any purpose other than the purpose for which it was supplied. One of the important issues that need legal and ethical consideration is public health surveillance, as a role of public health informatics. We define public health informatics as the methodical application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. Public health informatics is mainly an engineering discipline, that is, a practical activity, undergirded by science and technology, and concerned with the achievement of explicit goals. The scopes of public health informatics include the conceptualization, design, development, deployment, refinement, maintenance, and evaluation of communication. The scopes also include surveillance and information systems relevant to public health. They necessitate the application of information from several fields, particularly information science, computer science, management, organizational theory, psychology, communications, political science, and law. This article talked about the role of public informatics in shaping the scope of public health surveillance. Ideally, this article described public health surveillance as a tool that, “has benefited from, and has often pioneered, informatics analyses and solutions. However, the field of informatics also serves other facets of public health including emergency response, environmental health, nursing, and administration.” The research article, “proposes a vision for informatics in enhancing public health surveillance, identifies challenges and opportunities, and suggests approaches to attain the vision. CDC management identified six major concerns that must be addressed by the public health community to advance public health surveillance in the 21st century. The six topics were discussed by CDC workgroups, and convened as part of the 2009 Surveillance Consultation to advance public health surveillance. This was to ensure new challenges are met. Although this report is not based on workgroup discussions, it was intended to expand discussions with public health community for a shared vision and for public health surveillance in the 21st century. In addition, the challenges of global pandemics and bioterrorism makes passive reporting processes a substantial challenge. The application of informatics science could help to ensure that 21st century systems are part of a current method of practice. It also ensures improved efficiency. Although, the article described economic issues, as a result of the impact on public health surveillance, “economic pressures on health care and public health are diminishing the practicality of conducting active surveillance techniques (e.g., using detailed patient interviews, manual chart reviews, or manual data entry).
