Abstract
We describe a master’s level public health informatics (PHI) curriculum to support workforce development. Public health decision-making requires intensive information management to organize responses to health threats and develop effective health education and promotion. PHI competencies prepare the public health workforce to design and implement these information systems. The objective for a Master’s and Certificate in PHI is to prepare public health informaticians with the competencies to work collaboratively with colleagues in public health and other health professions to design and develop information systems that support population health improvement. The PHI competencies are drawn from computer, information, and organizational sciences. A curriculum is proposed to deliver the competencies and result of a pilot PHI program is presented. Since the public health workforce needs to use information technology effectively to improve population health, it is essential for public health academic institutions to develop and implement PHI workforce training programs.
Highlights
With the increasing use of electronic data collection and storage, there is an increasing focus on information and knowledge management systems [1]
Population health management: measuring, analyzing, and managing interventions to improve population health where populations are defined both in terms for health systems, the individuals served by a health system, and public health, the individuals living in a geographic area
The effective and efficient collection of quality public health data and information is intensive. It is the foundation of public health functions, such as surveillance, community health assessment, evaluation, and research
Summary
With the increasing use of electronic data collection and storage, there is an increasing focus on information and knowledge management systems [1]. These include computer science and health informatics competencies related to nomenclature, standards, platforms, information architecture, inter-operability, and systems analysis and data modeling which require integration of material from organization/information systems/ systems sciences, public health, and computer sciences This integration builds the overall competency to design PHInfSys to solve problems in the public health domain. These competencies reflect the informaticians’ architect role, which focuses on the problem definition and solving skills associated with defining problems, identifying requirements, building logical models, describing core features of information systems (use cases, data flows, data models, business processes), designing implementation alternatives, overseeing implementation, and facilitating user centered design and choice.
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