Health Information Technology and Informatics Links

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson has made enhancing the quality and safety of health care for all Americans through better use and wider application of information technology one of his most important priorities. The following links provide just a few examples of how information technology and informatics is reshaping the health care industry.

HHS Secretary Thompson, Seeking Fastest Possible Results in Health Information Technology
The United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson states that "Health information technology promises huge benefits, and we need to move quickly across many fronts to capture these benefits." … The benefits are enormous, but the task is also enormously complex. We need more than a business-as-usual approach."
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040506.html

HHS Secretary Thompson, Launches "Decade of Health Information Technology"
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson releases the first outline of a 10-year plan to transform the delivery of health care by building a new health information infrastructure, including electronic health records and a new network to link health records nationwide. At the same time, he announced a number of new action steps to help advance health information technology immediately.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040721a.html

National Health Information Infrastructure
The National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) is an initiative set forth to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and overall quality of health and health care in the United States. It is a comprehensive knowledge-based network of interoperable systems of clinical, public health, and personal health information that would improve decision-making by making health information available when and where it is needed. Likewise, it is the set of technologies, standards, applications, systems, values, and laws that support all facets of individual health, health care, and public health."
http://aspe.hhs.gov/sp/nhii/

CDC Public Health Information Network
Currently there are multiple systems in place that support communications for public health labs, the clinical community, and state and local health departments. Each has demonstrated the importance of being able to exchange health information. However, many of these systems operate in isolation, not capitalizing on the potential for a cross-fertilization of data exchange. The Public Health Information Network is a framework that will enable consistent exchange of response, health, and disease tracking data between public health partners. Ensuring the security of this information is also critical as is the ability of the network to work reliably in times of national crisis. PHIN is composed of five key components: detection and monitoring, data analysis, knowledge management, alerting and response:
http://www.cdc.gov/phin/

Health Level Seven (HL7)
Health Level Seven is one of several American National Standards Institute (ANSI) -accredited Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) operating in the healthcare arena. Most SDOs produce standards (sometimes called specifications or protocols) for a particular healthcare domain such as pharmacy, medical devices, imaging or insurance (claims processing) transactions. Health Level Seven’s domain is clinical and administrative data.

With HHS support, the voluntary international health standards-setting organization known as Health Level 7 (HL7) has announced a favorable vote on a functional model and standards for the electronic health record. The model is a significant step toward establishing nationwide guidelines for electronic health records.
http://www.hl7.org

Robert Wood Johnson Public Health Informatics Institute

The Public Health Informatics Institute brings together experts in public health, health information systems, and informatics to establish a new paradigm for developing health information systems. Our goal is to foster effective health information systems through collaboration, innovation, and action.
http://www.phii.org/

Columbia University
Public Health Informatics Training Program
http://www.dbmi.columbia.edu