Public Health, Population Health, and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States

Abstract

Summary Objectives: To survey advances in public and population health and epidemiology informatics over the past 18 months. Methods: We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public and population health informatics and published in MEDLINE or Web of Science between January 2015 and June 2016 where information technology or informatics was a primary subject or main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were presented using a thematic analysis based on the 2011 American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Public Health Informatics Agenda tracks as a typology. Results: Results are given within the context developed by Dixon et al., (2015) and key themes from the 2011 AMIA Public Health Informatics Agenda. Advances are presented within a socio-technical infrastructure undergirded by a trained, competent public health workforce, systems development to meet the business needs of the practice field, and research that evaluates whether those needs are adequately met. The ability to support and grow the infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions: The fields of public health and population health informatics continue to grow, with the most notable developments focused on surveillance, workforce development, and linking to or providing clinical services, which encompassed population health informatics advances. Very few advances addressed the need to improve communication, coordination, and consistency with the field of informatics itself, as identified in the AMIA agenda. This will likely result in the persistence of the silos of public health information systems that currently exist. Future research activities need to aim toward a holistic approach of informatics across the enterprise.

Public and Population Health Informatics: The Bridging of Big Data to Benefit Communities

“…This article reviewed the latest developments and trends of public and population health informatics. Slightly different from previous updates in this yearbook monograph series 5 17 , in addition to highlighting key observations and findings that cited authors have written about in the recent 2016-2017 literature, this article also discusses key trends based on several recent US public health informatics policy meetings. The intent of these workshops was to assess the future informatics needs for public health given new methods of digital data gathering and the potential impact of these changes for public health, particularly for surveillance and epidemiology activities.…”

“…Population health informatics addresses the information technology and analytic needs of groups and organizations responsible for the health management of defined populations. We adopted these definitionsto build on the conceptual framework that was developed and applied in previous reports in this series 5 17 . For this article, we updated the previous framework to reflect the current trend of expanded integration of SDH factors into the public health strategic partnerships, and the IT infrastructure supporting surveillance and analytics 18 ( Figure 1 ).…”

Explainable statistical learning in public health for policy development: the case of real-world suicide data

“…While public health informatics continues to expand in areas including surveillance and workforce issues, in other areas, such as communication and coordination, the field remains relatively under-developed. Without greater coordination between services and data, silos are likely to persist in public health information systems [27]. In response to the need for a more systemic approach, population health informatics is a growing topic among developed countries; population health informatics it takes a broader view and targets not only the total population (as publish health informatics does), but also target populations, provider organisations and healthcare systems [22].…”

Sistema Dedicado Para Vigilância Em Saúde:

“…O uso da informática na saúde pública continua a crescer, com desenvolvimento focado na vigilância, na força de trabalho e na vinculação ou na prestação de serviços clínicos. Entretanto, poucos avanços são empregados na melhoria da comunicação, principalmente referente às capacitações e aos treinamentos para os profissionais da ponta, à necessidade de melhoria da qualidade e à padronização dos dados coletados dos sistemas informatizados (MASSOUDI;CHESTER, 2017;GAMACHE et al, 2018).…”