CDC to Expand Public Health Data Sharing and Nationwide Health Equity
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology is aiming to expand public health data sharing and nationwide health equity over the next two years.
According to a recent FCW, the agency was taking the lessons it learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and embarking on a new mission that involved modernizing and improving nationwide access to public health data.
This is part of an enterprise-wide effort at the CDC to improve outcomes and promote health equity at the local, state and federal levels.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold two years ago, a spotlight was immediately shown on the need for enhancing the public health data infrastructure.
During this time, we hosted a RosettaHealth podcast interview with Doug Fridsma, former President and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and former Chief Science Officer at ONC; Tim Pletcher, Executive Director of MiHIN; and Buff Colchagoff, CEO of RosettaHealth.
The interview discussed how the role of health IT infrastructure has never been more important. To be able to make policies, understand how to treat the virus, and coordinate care, this infrastructure is serving as the foundational guide for driving a more-effective response – whether during or after a pandemic.
In addition, Electronic Case Reporting (eCR) is a key solution for enhancing public health sharing. For example, eCR is the automated generation and transmission of case reports from electronic health records to public health agencies for review and action.
Essentially, it reduces the burden on healthcare providers to accomplish their reporting requirements to public health and improves the timeliness and completeness of case reports at the local, state, and national levels.
According to a recent JAMIA study, the implementation of eCR at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has helped improve data accuracy for public health surveillance while cutting clinician burden during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thankfully, the RosettaHealth’s HealthBus solution supports the automated generation and transmission of case reports from electronic health records to public health agencies for review and action.
RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.