New Means of Data Collection

Abstract

The current challenges to public health in collecting, analyzing, and sharing data necessary to promote the health of the population is exemplified by the current inefficient systems used for public health surveillance. Current data collection systems lack interoperability, speed, and comprehensiveness, among other deficiencies. In part, these inadequacies are products of distinct funding streams and a compartmentalized approach. Yet, many forces now at work are motivating public health and the healthcare system in general to move toward an integrated, efficient, and comprehensive approach to the collection of data important to public health. These forces include recognition of the deficiencies of current data collection and data sharing systems, interest in acquiring new data, the continuing proliferation of systems at all levels, concerns about security and confidentiality, and the opportunity to transform the practice of public health. Such enablers of change as public policy and the multiple developments in information technology are also driving the effort. A new public health initiative, the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), is a primary example of the long-term vision of data collection and data sharing in public health. NEDSS’s long-term vision is of complementary, interoperable electronic information systems that permit automatic gathering of health data from a variety of sources on a real-time basis, facilitating the monitoring of the health of communities, assisting in ongoing analyses of trends in and detection of emerging health problems, and providing information for setting public health policy. Although that long-term vision faces numerous barriers to and requirements for its realization, the comprehensive, as opposed to disease-based, approach used by NEDSS exemplifies the electronic capture and sharing of information between the healthcare system and public health that will move the United States toward data collection systems that will support public health practice in the 21st century.