The proposed New York City Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics is a collaborative effort led by? theNew York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and supported by the Columbia University Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) and the Institute for Urban Family Health (IUFH), a network of Federally Qualified Health Center. This Center is distinguished by virtue of its public health leadership and mission, in addition to scientific rigor and depth. ? The unifying scientific theme of our Center for the next three years will be Using Health Information Technology to Meet Public Health Challenges. We shall focus especially on emerging public health threats such as bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and antibiotic resistance, as well as existing health threats with the highest burden and/or preventability, such as chronic diseases, HIV, substance abuse and mental health. We will demonstrate the potential of information technology to transform public health capabilities through three perspectives- that of the patient/ consumer, the health care provider, and the public health practitioner. ? Goals. The overall goals of the Center are to develop, disseminate, and demonstrate: ? (1) A Personal Health Record that incorporates public health priorities and cognitive research to empower patients in improving their preventive care. ? (2) An electronic clinical decision support system that incorporates public health priorities and epidemiologic data to empower clinicians in providing better preventive and acute care ? (3) Electronic health information exchange from clinical information systems that improves public health surveillance of antibiotic resistance and emerging health issues. ? ? ?
