Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World
Health Organization (WHO)
The overarching goal of public health informatics is to
apply computer science and information technology to promote health and
minimize disease and injury at the population level. Public health informatics
uses data from surveys, vital statistics, hospital and clinical statistics,
private and public data sources, and government data sources for analysis in
improving population health.
Key concepts of public health informatics include:
· Data collection
· Storage
· Retrieval
Using the required readings and websites for this week,
respond to the following:
· Describe the most significant milestone(s) in the history
of public health informatics.
· Refer to the CDC and WHO websites and state the
similarities and differences between the types of public health data available with
both these organizations.
· Explain the different kinds of statistics and data
available with the CDC and WHO. In addition, explain the various methods of
research that they use.
· Explain some of the major roadblocks that the field of
public health informatics has encountered during the course of its development.
· Describe the most salient issues facing the field of
public health informatics today.
· List and describe the various web-based data query
programs that are available for different states, including your own.
