Accomplishments
The Public Health Informatics Office (PHIO) cultivates informatics solutions with its leadership, advisement, and support. Below are stories of how PHIO leads efforts to impact public health action to protect Americans from health threats.
Healthcare facilities nationwide are making the switch from traditional case reporting to electronic case reporting (eCR). eCR moves patient data quickly, securely, and seamlessly from electronic health records (EHRs) in healthcare facilities to state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments.
Rapidly exchanging and processing electronic health record (EHR) data is an ongoing challenge in the public health space. CDC and other healthcare organizations are increasingly addressing data exchange issues by adopting HL7® (Health Level Seven International) FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a standard for electronically transferring healthcare information.
Detecting disease, containing outbreaks, and responding to public health emergencies starts with extracting critical data from electronic health records (EHR). Without rapid access to EHR data, it’s hard to develop strategies that can eliminate disease and improve public health.
Exchanging data between systems (interoperability) is challenging when information is in various databases. Giving healthcare providers, public health, and others a better solution to share, access, or manage data efficiently is critical now and for future action. Adoption of HL7® FHIR® can increase efficiency of data exchange.
The CDC’s Public Health Informatics Office (PHIO) and the Special Populations Team in the Office of the Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases (DDID) are working together to establish key building blocks for assessing and collecting data on housing status.
Working with partners to collect more complete data, establish data standards, and improve data exchange to better achieve health equity among various disproportionately affected populations and strengthen data-driven actions.