The resources below are associated with the Critical Success Factors for Informatics Projects eLearning course available through PHII’s Informatics Academy. Each expandable category below is associated with one of the eight critical elements of success identified in the Informatics Academy course.
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Funding resources for public health departments
Prevention and Public Health Funds
The Prevention and Public Health Fund was created to provide a stable and increased investment in prevention, wellness, and public health activities. The ACA originally authorized increasing amounts for the Prevention Fund for FY 2010 through FY 2014, gradually building from $500 million authorized for FY 2010 to $2 billion authorized for FY 2015 and for every subsequent fiscal year thereafter.
Partners in information access for the Public Health Workforce
A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries provides a listing of grant websites
Overview of Power-Interest Matrix
A power-interest matrix is a tool to analyze stakeholders by classifying them according to their power and interest in the project, initiative or other engagement.
Public health governance structures for sharing public health data
ASTHO: Profile of State Public Health
This report describes the governance structure, functions and resources of state and territorial health agencies and indicates what data are available for public use.
Promoting development and sustainability of community health partnerships
County Health Rankings and Road Maps: Tools and Information for Development and Support
This is a toolkit to help promote the development and sustainability of community health partnerships that include leadership from both business and business led health coalitions and public health officials. This information is designed to help at all stages of the evolution of the collaboration.
National organizations that are leaders in public health informatics
Agency for Health Care Research and Quality
The agency’s mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare for all Americans. AHRQ’s initiative on health information technology (health IT) is a key element of the nation’s 10-year strategy to bring healthcare into the 21st century by advancing the use of IT. The AHRQ initiative includes more than $166 million in grants and contracts in 41 states to support and stimulate investment in health IT, especially in rural and underserved areas.
American Immunization Registry Association
AIRA is a membership organization that exists to promote the development and implementation of immunization information systems (IIS) as an important tool in preventing and controlling vaccine preventable diseases. AIRA values the voluntary and collaborative interaction of all of its members.
American Medical Informatics Association
AMIA focuses on those aspects of public health that enable the development and use of interoperable information systems for public health functions such as biosurveillance, outbreak management, electronic laboratory reporting and prevention.
American National Standards Institute
ANSI coordinates the development and use of standards in the United States across a range of business sectors, including healthcare. ANSI has recently formed the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) that will work with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) on the breakthrough areas that are under consideration by the American Health Information Community (AHIC). The panel was formed to harmonize the consensus-based standards necessary to enable the widespread interoperability of healthcare information in the United States.
American Public Health Association
APHA champions the health of all people and all communities. APHA publishes the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation’s Health newspaper.
Association of Public Health Laboratories
The Association of Public Health Laboratories works to strengthen laboratories serving the public’s health in the U.S. and globally.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing public health agencies in the United States, the U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia, and over 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, formulate and influence sound public health policy and ensure excellence in state-based public health practice. ASTHO’s primary function is to track, evaluate and advise members on the impact and formation of public or private health policy which may affect them and to provide them with guidance and technical assistance on improving the nation’s health.
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
CSTE is an organization of member states and territories representing public health epidemiologists. CSTE works to establish more effective relationships among state and other health agencies. It also provides technical advice and assistance to partner organizations and to federal public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CSTE members have surveillance and epidemiology expertise in a broad range of areas including occupational health, infectious diseases, environmental health, chronic diseases, injury control, maternal and child health, and more. CSTE supports effective public health surveillance and good epidemiologic practice through training, capacity development and peer consultation.
The eHealth Initiative and the Foundation for eHealth Initiative are independent, nonprofit affiliated organizations engaging stakeholders (e.g., public and private clinical and public health organizations, academic and research institutions, industry, etc.) to define and then implement specific actions that will address the quality, safety and efficiency challenges to our healthcare system through the use of interoperable IT.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
HIMSS is the healthcare industry’s membership organization focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology and management systems.
National Association of County & City Health Officials
NACCHO’s vision is health, equity and security for all people in their communities through public health policies and services. NACCHO’s mission is to be a leader, partner, catalyst and voice for local health departments in order to ensure the conditions that promote health and equity, combat disease, and improve the quality and length of all lives.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.
The National Public Health Information Coalition
The National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) is an independent organization of professionals sought after to improve America’s health through public health communications.
North American Association of Central Cancer Registries
NAACCR, Inc. is a collaborative umbrella organization for cancer registries, governmental agencies, professional associations and private groups in North America interested in enhancing the quality and use of cancer registry data. All central cancer registries in the United States and Canada are members.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC or ONCHIT)
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology provides leadership for the development and nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure.
Public Health Data Standards Consortium
The Public Health Data Standards Consortium is a non-profit membership based organization of federal, state and local health agencies; professional associations; academia; public and private sector organizations; international members; and individuals. The overall goal of the Public Health Data Standards Consortium is to develop, promote and implement data standards for population health practice and research.
Public Health Informatics Institute
PHII is known for its expertise as a neutral convener of public health professionals and their stakeholders, transforming health practitioners’ ability to apply information effectively in order to improve health outcomes worldwide. Our work falls into four key areas of focus: informatics solutions development, technical assistance, neutral convening, and support of immunization information systems.
State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Professionals Gateway
The Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS) was formed to support and improve public health at all levels. The mission of OSTLTS is to advance US public health agency and system performance, capacity, agility, and resilience.
California’s best practices for health IT project management
The Project Life Cycle Framework leverages project management as the overarching process which coordinates the underlying life cycle processes of project funding approval, acquisition and system development.
Federal and State Health Informatics Strategic Plans
Illinois Department of Public Health 2014-2018 Strategic Plan includes data utilization and dissemination pages 21-23.
Utah Health Information Technology (HIT) Governance Consortium vision for health and health care in Utah.
Washington State Public Health Department Strategic plan includes informatics planning on pages 21-26.
Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed) Fiscal Years 2013–2016 Strategic Plan.
Resources for State Chief Informatics Officers
National Association of State Chief Informatics Officers
NASCIO provides state CIOs and state members with products and services designed to support the challenging role of the state CIO, stimulate the exchange of information and promote the adoption of IT best practices and innovations. From national conferences, peer networking, research and publications, briefings and government affairs, NASCIO is the premier network and resource for state CIOs.
Standards organizations that develop, test, promote and implement data standards
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The Computer Security Division (CSD), a component of NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), is responsible for developing standards, guidelines, tests and metrics for the protection of non-national security federal information and communications infrastructure.
Resources describing the IT lifecycle and business requirements
PATH: Information systems planning toolkit
The toolkit focuses on the planning phase of an information systems project.
Information on the difference between business, user and system requirements
This blog provides a good description on the difference between system, user and business requirements.
Defining functional requirements – describing how an information system should support your work – is the most important step in developing or acquiring any information system. PHII applies a facilitated collaborative approach to developing requirements for public health information systems – our Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology (CRDM)™. Through the CRDM, PHII assists public health agencies in analyzing the tasks and processes performed; defining better ways to perform those processes; and describing the requirements for the ways that information systems should support that work.
Steps involved in the system development lifecycle
NIST: System Development Lifeycycle
The report focuses on the information security components of the SDLC. One section summarizes the relationships between the SDLC and other information technology (IT) disciplines. Topics discussed include the steps that are prescribed in the SDLC approach, and the key security roles and responsibilities of staff members who carry out information system development projects.
Templates from Washington
Washington State: communications plan
The communications plan outlines the roles and responsibilities of project participants in the review, approval and dissemination of information about key project processes, events, documents and milestones.
Data sharing agreement templates for sharing protected health information
ASTHO: data sharing with covered entities
This report discusses the differing approaches of three states (Kansas, South Carolina and Pennsylvania) to sharing protected health information, as well as aggregated data, with covered entities under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. All three states have encountered and overcome challenges resulting from the implementation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
Health Information Security & Privacy Collaboration (HISPC)
This user guide is for parties using data sharing agreements to enter into electronic health information exchange (HIE) efforts. Two data sharing agreements for HIE were developed as part of the HISPC Project.
Resources for standards and interoperability, including privacy and security standards
ASTHO: Public Health Access to Student Health Data
This issue brief examines the interplay of federal laws related to privacy and disclosure of student health information, and various approaches for obtaining student health information.
American Standards for Testing and Materials Committee E31 on Health Informatics
ASTM develops standards related to the architecture, content, storage, security, confidentiality, functionality and communication of information used within healthcare and healthcare decision making, including patient-specific information and knowledge.
ISO 215 works on the standardization of health information and communications technology to allow for compatibility and interoperability between independent systems through a variety of working groups.
Evaluating programs
CDC: guide to planning and implementing program evaluations
This document is a “how to” guide for planning and implementing evaluation activities. The manual, based on CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, is intended to assist managers and staff of public, private, and community public health programs to plan, design, implement and use comprehensive evaluations in a practical way.
Planning for critical success factors
PHII: Planning Matrix
This matrix offers a means of documenting goals identified by a project team and tracking progress toward those goals.
Workforce development
PHII: job descriptions for health informatics positions for state and local health departments
This free PHII resource contains informatics and health IT job description templates.
Web services for immunization
HLN Consulting: Web Services Strategies
The purpose of this paper is to describe the options that are available to immunization information system (IIS) projects in collaborating with health information exchanges (HIE) or other service providers to facilitate the exchange of immunization information between electronic health record systems and IIS. In many jurisdictions, HIEs can play an active role in providing part of the technical infrastructure to make EHR‐IIS interoperability work, especially through the use of SOAP‐based web services, the current interoperability transport standard for these transactions. Various options are available for deployment of these web services with differing operational and security implications for both the HIE and IIS projects.
The future of public health surveillance
CDC: Vision for Public Health Surveillance in the 21st Century
Utilizing health information exchanges for public health purposes
The Bright Spots Initiative is designed to identify and disseminate successful HIE implementation practices and approaches at the state and local level.
Public health informatics workforce competencies for state and local public health agencies
California Department of Public Health: Informatics Workforce Development and Training
This page provides information and training resources for developing informatics competencies in the public health workforce.
NACCHO: ePublic Health Workforce
NACCHO encourages local health departments (LHDs) to collaborate with state, federal, academic, and other public health entities to develop appropriate training in ePublic Health competencies for a knowledgeable and skilled public health workforce.
The PHIN Message Authentication and Encryption Framework
The Public Health Information Network (PHIN) Messaging System
The Public Health Information Network Messaging System (henceforth, PHINMS) is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) implementation of the ebXML 2.0 messaging standards [EbXML]. This system was developed for the purpose of secure and reliable messaging over the Internet. This software has been widely deployed by CDC and its public health partners, including state and local health departments and healthcare providers.
