A catastrophic public health (PH) event could threaten our national security and cause hundreds of thousands of casualties. Recognizing the need for efficient sharing of real-time info. to help prevent devastating consequences of PH emergencies, Congress mandated the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with state, local, and tribal PH officials, to develop a strategic plan for the establishment and evaluation of an electronic nationwide PH situational awareness capability. This report reviewed HHS's status of efforts to implement these capabilities, described collaborative efforts to establish a network, and determined grants authorized by the act and awarded to PH entities. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

"A catastrophic public health event could threaten our national security and cause hundreds of thousands of casualties. Recognizing the need for efficient sharing of real-time information to help prevent devastating consequences of public health emergencies, Congress included in the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act in December 2006 a mandate for the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with state, local, and tribal public health officials, to develop and deliver to Congress a strategic plan for the establishment and evaluation of an electronic nationwide public health situational awareness capability.Pursuant to requirements of the act, GAO reviewed HHS's plans for and status of efforts to implement these capabilities, described collaborative efforts to establish a network, and determined grants authorized by the act and awarded to public health entities. GAO assessed relevant strategic planning documents and interviewed HHS officials and public health stakeholders. "

Public Health Information Technology: Additional Strategic Planning Needed to Guide HHS's Efforts to Establish Electronic Situational Awareness Capabilities

The capacity to conduct international disease outbreak surveillance and share information about outbreaks quickly has empowered both State and Non-State Actors to take an active role in stopping the spread of disease by generating new technical means to identify potential pandemics through the creation of shared reporting platforms. Despite all the rhetoric about the importance of infectious disease surveillance, the concept itself has received relatively little critical attention from academics, practitioners, and policymakers. This book asks leading contributors in the field to engage with five key issues attached to international disease outbreak surveillance - transparency, local engagement, practical needs, integration, and appeal - to illuminate the political effect of these technologies on those who use surveillance, those who respond to surveillance, and those being monitored.

This revised edition covers all aspects of public health informatics and discusses the creation and management of an information technology infrastructure that is essential in linking state and local organizations in their efforts to gather data for the surveillance and prevention. Public health officials will have to understand basic principles of information resource management in order to make the appropriate technology choices that will guide the future of their organizations. Public health continues to be at the forefront of modern medicine, given the importance of implementing a population-based health approach and to addressing chronic health conditions. This book provides informatics principles and examples of practice in a public health context. In doing so, it clarifies the ways in which newer information technologies will improve individual and community health status. This book's primary purpose is to consolidate key information and promote a strategic approach to information systems and development, making it a resource for use by faculty and students of public health, as well as the practicing public health professional. Chapter highlights include: The Governmental and Legislative Context of Informatics; Assessing the Value of Information Systems; Ethics, Information Technology, and Public Health; and Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security. Review questions are featured at the end of every chapter. Aside from its use for public health professionals, the book will be used by schools of public health, clinical and public health nurses and students, schools of social work, allied health, and environmental sciences.

This 5th edition of this essential textbook continues to meet the growing demand of practitioners, researchers, educators, and students for a comprehensive introduction to key topics in biomedical informatics and the underlying scientific issues that sit at the intersection of biomedical science, patient care, public health and information technology (IT). Emphasizing the conceptual basis of the field rather than technical details, it provides the tools for study required for readers to comprehend, assess, and utilize biomedical informatics and health IT. It focuses on practical examples, a guide to additional literature, chapter summaries and a comprehensive glossary with concise definitions of recurring terms for self-study or classroom use. Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine reflects the remarkable changes in both computing and health care that continue to occur and the exploding interest in the role that IT must play in care coordination and the melding of genomics with innovations in clinical practice and treatment. New and heavily revised chapters have been introduced on human-computer interaction, mHealth, personal health informatics and precision medicine, while the structure of the other chapters has undergone extensive revisions to reflect the developments in the area. The organization and philosophy remain unchanged, focusing on the science of information and knowledge management, and the role of computers and communications in modern biomedical research, health and health care.