We propose to create the Public Health Informatics, Decision-support, Evaluation, Analysis, and Surveillance? (IDEAS) Center. Its theme will be system alignment and data integration to support the public health? functions of preparedness, evaluation, surveillance, analysis, decision-making, and response. The Center? will be housed in the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah, which is one of four? National Library of Medicine (NLM)/Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Public Health Informatics training program? site. It will bring together academia, state and local health departments, integrated health care delivery? systems, a successful Community Health Information Network (CHIN) and developing Regional Health? Information Organization (RHIO), and myriad local, regional, and national public health and clinical data? resources. The Center will unite the pursuit of state of the art research into public health informatics with a? network of investigators, public health leaders and practitioners, hospital and clinic health care providers,? computer scientists, and healthcare and community leaders.? The research aims of the Public Health IDEAS Center address key problems in public health, clinical? care, and public health informatics. We will develop and evaluate methods to improve accuracy of data? linkage of patient records from multiple data sources and locations through probabilistic matching. The? challenge of coordinating public health and health care system responses to threats to patient safety will be? investigated. Reporting and monitoring functions of public health will be matched with education and quality? improvement activities, using surveillance and analytic tools that are based on linked patient data. We will? implement information technologies that support communication between providers and public health? personnel, enhance decision-making capacity, and improve the efficiency of retrieval of data for investigation? of infectious disease and other public health related events. Finally, we will develop and apply advanced? modeling, simulation, and geographic information systems to better inform public health policy- and decisionmaking,? not just for situations of high uncertainty and high risk, but also to improve control of more familiar? infections. Our driving goal is to generate research findings that are widely generalizable for public health? and its health care partners at the local, state, and national levels.
