PUBLIC-HEALTH INFORMATICS - HOW INFORMATION-AGE TECHNOLOGY CAN STRENGTHEN PUBLIC-HEALTH

The combination of the burgeoning interest in health, health care refo rm and the advent of the Information Age, represents a challenge and a n opportunity for public health. If public health's effectiveness and profile are to grow, practitioners and researchers will need reliable, timely information with which to make information-driven decisions, b etter ways to communicate, and improved tools to analyze and present n ew knowledge. ''Public Health Informatics'' (PHI) is the science of ap plying Information-Age technology to serve the specialized needs of pu blic health. In this paper we define Public Health Informatics, outlin e specific benefits that may accrue from its widespread application, a nd discuss why and how an academic discipline of public health informa tics should be developed. Finally, we make specific recommendations fo r actions that government and academia can take to assure that public health professionals have the systems, tools, and training to use PHI to advance the mission of public health.