How We Do It | PHII.org

Our decades of work in informatics has allowed us to make essential connections with experts across healthcare, public health, information technology and private industry. We leverage those relationships to bring the right set of decision-makers to the table to dissect problems and decide how our network can use its power to create data-driven solutions.

We clearly define the problem first

Rather than focusing on technology first, we examine the issue for clarity and identify the most appropriate solution. We apply a facilitated collaborative approach to developing requirements for public health information systems to assist U.S. and global agencies in clearly documenting work processes, identifying areas of improvement, and defining the requirements that outline how information systems should support that work.

Learn more about our Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology (CRDM)™.

We remain outcomes-focused

We begin each of our projects with the end in mind, ensuring that we plan every step of a project intentionally focused on all defined needs being met. For example, we plan for system interoperability from the start of a project—that is, setting up systems to communicate seamlessly so that public health practitioners, healthcare providers and other health organizations can work together to efficiently exchange critical information.

We also plan from the beginning to make systems scalable, or able to rapidly grow to accommodate wider use or a greater number of users. By accounting for these and other crucial factors—privacy, usability, functionality, etc.—we ensure that the solutions we create are thorough and practical.

Defining public health informatics

What is informatics? Although it touches every part of public health, informatics isn’t always easy to define. As an information science, informatics turns raw data into usable information and knowledge. But there’s more to this discipline. See how we break down this term and explore tools for further learning.

Guiding Principles

PHII’s principles serve as a guide to how we approach our work. We execute each project through three core lenses:

Innovation

We brainstorm new concepts to advance public health information systems—from repurposing existing methods and technology to pioneering emerging approaches that can be applied to solve some of the most impactful public health informatics problems. By remaining forward-thinking, we play a part in supporting agencies’ move to more modern informatics practices.

Health Equity

Using data to drive better health outcomes in communities that have been institutionally marginalized is a guiding aspiration for all of our projects. Because designing systems for the status quo often reinforces existing and deeply entrenched inequities, we seek to disrupt outdated approaches by closely examining transforming health processes, ensuring that care and the resulting health outcomes are equitable for all.

Public Health Informatics Guidance

As an established innovator in the field of public health informatics, PHII regularly leads the way on cutting-edge new concepts and ideas within the discipline. By offering guidance and education to health organizations in the U.S. and around the world, we prioritize making evidence-based best practices of informatics available to all.

PHII is a program of the Task Force for Global Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded as the Task Force for Child Survival in 1984. The Task Force is affiliated with Emory University.