July SnapShots: New Institute Seeks to Eliminate Duplication of Public Health IT Efforts
An organization dedicated to assisting state and local public health agencies in creating, using and acquiring a new generation of public health information systems will be launched this fall. The Public Health Informatics Institute is generously supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the auspices of the Center for Innovation in Health Information Systems, home of All Kids Count.
The not-for-profit Institute will use a collaborative approach to address the informatics needs of state and local public health agencies. Services will include:
- Access to current public health systems and software products. The Institute will develop a component repository that will make software shareable across political jurisdictions.
- Project development support services. The Institute will assist public health practitioners in defining requirements for new applications, finding information about feasible solutions, and developing contractual mechanisms to move requirements to implemented products.
- Clearinghouse of information about vendors, products and services. The clearinghouse will include objective and authoritative evaluations of products according to public health information and data standards (where applicable).
- Informatics education and training. The Institute will offer education and training opportunities for public health executives, program managers and information technologists responsible for developing new systems, guiding projects to successful completion and maintaining the new IT infrastructure.
The major public health organizations, including ASTHO, NACCHO, APHL, NAPHSIS, and APHCIO, will be collaborating partners of the Institute.
Dave Ross, Director of the Institute and the Center for Innovation, notes, "The current approach to building information tools and infrastructure creates duplication of effort state-by-state and locality-by-locality. In the past this approach has led to redundant investment and too often [resulted] in failed projects and wasted investment. We and many senior public health officials believe something must be done to break the cycle of recreating the 'information technology wheel.' "
A software exchange feasibility study supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation this past year documented this belief. Many public health practitioners supported a call for a new approach to designing, testing, sharing and supporting the use of information systems and tools in public health.
Ross says, "The Institute hopes to develop a dialogue with AIRA and its members so that we can offer them valuable, affordable services." Look for additional information about the Public Health Informatics Institute in future issues of SnapShots, or for information, contact dross@centerforinnovation.org. (Source: Terry Hastings, Center for Innovation)