Frequently Asked Questions About The Center for Public Health Informatics (CPHI)If your questions are not answered, please contact Robin. What is the Center for Public Health Informatics?The University of Washington's Center for Public Health Informatics (CPHI), in the School of Public Health, is an interdisciplinary environment recognized for its public health informatics training and research. What is Public Health Informatics?"...the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning." Informatics is the study of information processing, also known as computer science. Public health informatics is concerned with how people involved with health care use computers and other technology. We now have the ability to use technology to input huge amounts of data and run complicated diagnostic algorithms. Improved access to information allows health care professionals to improve patient care, allows health surveillance organizations to quickly calculate regional and global health trends, and allows public health agencies to recognize and diagnose health threats quickly. The impacts of improved information strategies and technologies are immense. What does CPHI do?Click here to download a PDF of CPHI's brochure (two-sided, tri-fold) CPHI does innovative research into information strategies and technologies to improve the health of the public. By better understanding information needs within the public health industry, we are able to research strategies and technologies to build a better public health information infrastructure. Patient care, disease documentation, outbreak protection and response, and public policy are just a few examples of the issues affected by the effective, accurate gathering and dissemination of information. CPHI research includes a number of projects which we organize around research pillars: information collection, information analysis, information management, and information dissemination. CPHI actively investigates the collection, analysis, management, and dissemination of public health data, resources, and information, as well as working to increase awareness and promote collaboration amongst public health associations around the world. Download a PDF of CPHI's research pillars.
Who will benefit from CPHI's work?CPHI's work is used by public health practitioners, policy makers, and many others who are interested in promoting and protecting public health. The scope of our work cannot yet be determined. As one of the first informatics centers in the United States, we are constantly striving to challenge ourselves and our research partners to think of better, more efficient ways in which technology and information can improve the world's quality of health care and health surveillance. We are also working to unite informatics specialists all over the world through the Global Partners in Public Health Informatics organization, which holds an annual public health informatics conference to spotlight the challenges and successes of global informatics. What is the Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics?Housed within CPHI is the Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics (CEPHI), awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September of 2005. It was one of two centers of excellence funded by the CDC, funding a multidisciplinary research program consisting of two key public health informatics research projects, Surveillance Integration and Decision Support and myPublicHealth. CPHI's Surveillance Integration and Decision Support project studies new approaches to identifying important health events both within and outside the context of what the regional health information organizations are capable of providing. The design, development, and evaluation of an interactive digital knowledge management system, myPublicHealth, provides a public health repository that supports and enhances the retrieval of critical information needed for decision-making by public health professionals. Who are CPHI's University of Washington partners?Departments: • Department of Health Services, School of Public Health Research and Training: • Clinical Informatics Research Group What Organizations are affiliated with CPHI?• Public Health Informatics Institute, Decatur, GA |
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