Joint Navigation: Setting a Course for Public Health Professionals and Technical Staff, Together

The goal of this blog is to provide public health experts with a pragmatic grasp of technical concepts so they can both understand their technical teams and provide effective guidance as public health increases its technical capabilities.

Immunization registries are a relatively new frontier in public health. They were created by city, county, and state public health departments across the United States in the 1990s. A decade later, most registries were consolidated into statewide systems and became accessible online. For many pediatric locations these systems were the first step toward digitizing patient records, although it would still be another 10 years before electronic health records (EHRs) would experience widespread adoption. These first-of-their-kind registries demonstrated the benefits of embracing new technologies in public health.

Throughout the brief history of immunization registries, public health experts have played—and must continue to play—a central role. Since many public health experts are not technology experts, however, and may feel uncomfortable weighing in on issues outside their domain, technical teams often bear the full responsibility of navigating technical decisions on behalf of public health.

The future of immunization registries depends on the public health community engaging freely and openly with their technical teams to provide direction on the work these teams do. The more public health professionals know and understand about registry technology, the more direction they can provide to technical teams.

The goal of this article series is to provide public health experts with a pragmatic grasp of technical concepts so they can both understand their technical teams and provide effective guidance as public health increases its technical capabilities.