Use of Technology to Support Information Needs for Continuity of Operations Planning in Public Health: A Systematic Review

Abstract

ObjectivesContinuity of operations planning focuses on an organization’s ability to deliver essential services before, during and after an emergency. Public health leaders must make decisions based on information from many sources and their information needs are often facilitated or hindered by technology. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic review of studies of technology projects that address public health continuity of operations planning information needs and to discuss patterns, themes, and challenges to inform the design of public health continuity of operations information systems.Methods:To return a comprehensive results set in an under-explored area, we searched broadly in the Medline and EBSCOHost bibliographic databases using terms from prior work in public health emergency management and continuity of operations planning in other domains. In addition, we manually searched the citation lists of publications included for review.Results:A total of 320 publications were reviewed. Twenty studies were identified for inclusion (twelve risk assessment decision support tools, six network and communications-enabled decision support tools, one training tool and one dedicated video-conferencing tool). Levels of implementation for information systems in the included studies range from proposed frameworks to operational systems.Conclusion:There is a general lack of documented efforts in the scientific literature for technology projects about public health continuity of operations planning. Available information about operational information systems suggest inclusion of public health practitioners in the design process as a factor in system success.

Lessons Learnt From Exercise Celestial Navigation: The Application of a Geographic Information System to Inform Legionnaires’ Disease Control Activity

“…The pilot will include a package of user needs evaluation, education and training materials, and exercises to promote user-based development of the system. 13,14 This exercise was limited in scope and hence in testing the technical capability of staff members to perform any statistical cluster detection or other methods for spatial analysis of data. However, authors have identified a limited uptake and lack of consistency in the approach to spatial analysis with regard to infectious disease outbreaks.…”

Scenario-based design: A method for connecting information system design with public health operations and emergency management

“…We created an interview guide for semi-structured interviews based on prior field work at the study setting, analysis of COOP documents from the local health jurisdiction and a systematic review of the literature covering public health, information technology and continuity of operations planning[4]. The guide was piloted with two former area managers experienced with COOP at the local health jurisdiction.…”

“…Targeted planning, an agreed-upon chain of command, and ongoing assessment of resources are critical for meeting the changing needs for public health services during and in the aftermath of an emergency. A prior systematic review of the published literature indicates a lack of studies about technology support for public health COOP[4]. …”

Beyond information access: Support for complex cognitive activities in public health informatics tools

“…Much of the existing PHI literature focuses on the technological structures that facilitate information access [6, 7, 8, 9]. In such contributions, as well as in review papers that consider multiple PHI tools (e.g., [10, 3]), criteria for evaluation generally consist of meeting basic information access needs [11]. Even the discourse on design principles in the public health literature concerns itself with limited issues such as secure access to varied local, national, and international information sources [12].…”