title: Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice.
abstract: Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US' investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kierkegaard
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Informatics & Policy, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York NY ; Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York NY ; Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY ; Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY ; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Rainu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaushal
authors.affiliation: Center for Healthcare Informatics & Policy, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York NY ; Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York NY.
authors.forename: Joshua R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Vest
mesh_terms: D066275:Health Information Exchange / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D063005:Health Information Systems; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D015980:Public Health Practice; D014481:United States