Public Health Informatics: The Wisconsin Idea

PHDSC Annual Meeting March 17, 2004

Lawrence P. Hanrahan PhD MSSenior Epidemiologist

Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services

Adjunct Associate ProfessorDepartment of Population Health

SciencesUniversity of Wisconsin Medical School

"Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire."

- W. B. Yeats

Topics• What is the Wisconsin Idea?

• University of Wisconsin Perspective / Collaborations

• Public Health / Health System Modernization Drives Need for Public Health Informatics Training

• How do We Increase Interest in Public Health Informatics Training?

• Developing Curriculum

The Wisconsin Idea is Not About Cheese as Wearable Fashion

WhileClutching in the Play-offs

It Is – Rapid Technology TransferUW - State - Global Economy

UW DoIT – PHIN Information Technology Transfer /

Provider

Wisconsin PHIN Vision• Detection and Monitoring

• Analysis

• Information Resources/Knowledge Management

• Alerting and Communications

• Response

• Create and Reinforce public health partnerships

• Support Entire Medical Informatics Spectrum

Labs, ClinicsHospitals

ERs Tumor

Registries

WE-TRAC

SPHERE

Wisconsin Public Health Information Network

PHIN Portal Integrated Data Repository

EPHTNChildhood Cancer

CDC

State/LocalPublic Health

Agencies

Secure Data Transfer

Other PAMS

Traditional PublicHealth Partners

Non-TraditionalPublic Health

Partners

Secure access via WAMS for authentication*

Role based access to Program Area Modules

(i.e. NEDSS, HAN, etc.)

* State of Wisconsin Web Access Management System

Conceptual Representation – Information Flows and Services

Health Alert Network

NEDSSBase System

Common

Demographic

Data

GIS/DataVisualization

StatisticalAnalysis

Common

Observational

Data

Program

Area

Module

Specific Data

• Directories

• Forums

• Training

• Calendar

• Survey

• Emergency Alerting

• Topic Areas

• Digests

• Search

• Redundant Email

• Incident Command (planned)

Shared User Base

Data

Driven

Alerts

Data

Driven

& User

Initiated

Alerts

Medical Informatics HierarchySpectrum

BioinformaticsMolecular Cellular

Imaging InformaticsTissues, Organs

Clinical InformaticsIndividualPatients

Public Health InformaticsPopulations

Adapted from Shortliffe

Diffusion Model Clinical and Public Health Informatics

Data Interpretation

DataCollection

DataAnalysis

InformationDissemination

DataInterpretation

DataAnalysis

DataCollection

Clinical Informatics Public Health Informatics

Two Way Information Flow

UW Medical School InitiativeThe Wisconsin Partnership Fund

for a Healthy Future

UW Medical School Wisconsin Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future (Blue Cross)

• Align Medical School with State Health Plan:– System Priorities

• Integrated Electronic Data and Information Systems • Community Health Improvement Processes and Plans • Coordination of State and Local Public Health System Partnerships• Sufficient and Competent Workforce • Equitable, Adequate, and Stable Financing

– Health Priorities• Access to Primary and Preventive Health Services• Adequate and Appropriate Nutrition• Alcohol and Other Substance Use and Addiction • Environmental and Occupational Health Hazards • Existing, Emerging, and Re-Emerging Communicable Diseases• High Risk Sexual Behavior • Intentional and Unintentional Injuries and Violence• Mental Health and Mental Disorders• Overweight, Obesity and Lack of Physical Activity • Social and Economic Factors that Influence Health • Tobacco Use and Exposure

UW Medical School Wisconsin Partnership Fund

for a Healthy Future (Blue Cross)

• Integrated School of Medicine & Public Health• Establish MPH Program / Leadership Institute /

Fellowships • Community – Academic Partnerships• Aligned Medical Education & Research• Innovating Education – Health Sciences Learning

Center

Clinical Data Warehouse & Public Health:

Practice Management, Quality Improvement, Research

Public Health Research & Education

Medical Informatics Training Demand

• Is At Every Level of Health Enterprise

• From Molecular to Population

• From Research to Application

• Leads Us Down the Long and Winding Road, But How to Collaborate….?

Create Electronic Research Networks

Increasing Public Health Informatics Training Interest

• PHI Sits Atop The Medical Informatics Hierarchy & is Part of Clinical Research Enterprise

• Every Clinical Action Taken Informed by Evidence Based, Population Level Information (e.g. Clinical Trials)

• Public Health Informatics Is Fundamental to Road Map

Public Health Informatics Curriculum Development

• Create Curriculum For Medical Informatics Domains, and linking Domains

• Public Health Informatics – Educate / Train to Competencies

• Establish linkages Between Domains

And So I Say to You, My Fellow Public Health Informaticians,

Ask Not What The EHR Can do For You,But

Ask What You Can do For the EHR.