title: Using health information exchange to improve public health.
abstract: Public health relies on data reported by health care partners, and information technology makes such reporting easier than ever. However, data are often structured according to a variety of different terminologies and formats, making data interfaces complex and costly. As one strategy to address these challenges, health information organizations (HIOs) have been established to allow secure, integrated sharing of clinical information among numerous stakeholders, including clinical partners and public health, through health information exchange (HIE). We give detailed descriptions of 11 typical cases in which HIOs can be used for public health purposes. We believe that HIOs, and HIE in general, can improve the efficiency and quality of public health reporting, facilitate public health investigation, improve emergency response, and enable public health to communicate information to the clinical community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA. jason.shapiro@mssm.edu
authors.forename: Jason S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mostashari
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hripcsak
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soulakis
authors.forename: Gilad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kuperman
mesh_terms: D054597:Disaster Medicine; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007256:Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D008490:Medical Informatics; D011634:Public Health; D040442:Public Health Informatics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care