Published 13 November 2017
Studies and surveys have shown that using information technology to analyze big health datasets and guide public
health decisions can improve health equity, but the majority of community health center leaders and staff report receiving little to no training in health informatics. At the November 2017 Annual American Public Health Association Meeting and Expo in Atlanta, GA, Elizabeth Van Nostrand, JD, associate director for law and policy in Pitt Public Health’s Center for Public Health Practice, shared a training protocol designed to remedy this gap and be replicated nationwide. “There is so much information collected by community health centers, health departments, hospitals and other public health services – ranging from vaccination records to blood pressure screenings – that could give us insights about the public health needs of a community.” Van Nostrand, a PHDL faculty member, directs the Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center and explained the goal is not to tell a center that this is the best informatics tool for them but to help them recognize their needs and learn how informatics can serve them.
Van Nostrand shared four free, open access public health informatics tools developed at Pitt Public Health. Two of these tools were developed at the Pitt Public Health Dynamics Laboratory. The first tool, FRED (A Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics), aids the public health workforce in preparing for and responding to disasters. The second tool, Project Tycho, is a repository of data from all weekly disease reports for the US dating back to 1888 and provides surveillance data for the advancement of science and technology through research applications.