Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO)

The overarching goal of public health informatics is to apply  computer science and information technology to promote health and  minimize disease and injury at the population level. Public health  informatics uses data from surveys, vital statistics, hospital and  clinical statistics, private and public data sources, and government  data sources for analysis in improving population health.

Key concepts of public health informatics include:

• Data collection
• Storage
• Retrieval

Using the required readings and websites for this week, respond to the following:

• Describe the most significant milestone(s) in the history of public health informatics.
• Refer to the CDC and WHO websites and state the similarities and  differences between the types of public health data available with both  these organizations.
• Explain the different kinds of statistics and data available with  the CDC and WHO. In addition, explain the various methods of research  that they use.
• Explain some of the major roadblocks that the field of public health  informatics has encountered during the course of its development.
• Describe the most salient issues facing the field of public health informatics today.
• List and describe the various web-based data query programs that are available for different states, including your own.