A national agenda for public health informatics: Summarized recommendations from the 2001 AMIA Spring Congress

The AMIA 2001 Spring Congress brought together members of the the public he alth and informatics communities to develop a national agenda for public he alth informatics. Discussions of funding and governance; architecture and i nfrastructure; standards and vocabulary; research, evaluation, and best pra ctices; privacy, confidentiality, and security; and training and workforce resulted in 74 recommendations with two key themes-that all stakeholders ne ed to be engaged in coordinated activities related to public health informa tion architecture, standards, confidentiality, best practices, and research ; and that informatics training is needed throughout the public health work force. Implementation of this consensus agenda will help promote progress i n the application of information technology to improve public health.