OUR RESOURCES

ELI

The Emergency Law Inventory (ELI) is a tool that helps individuals navigate through laws that impact volunteer participation in preparing for or responding to disasters. The inventory focuses on four area s of law: liability, license reciprocity, scope of practice, and workers' benefits. ELI provides over 1500 clear, concise summaries of laws in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, eight U.S. territories, and the federal government. The laws are searchable by profession and jurisdiction so users can identify the provisions that impact them specifically. Access ELI

Click here to view the All about ELI video.

FRED

Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics (FRED) is an open source modeling system developed by the University of Pittsburgh Public Health Dynamics Laboratory in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science. FRED supports research on the dynamics of infectious disease epidemics and the interacting effects of

• mitigation strategies;
• viral evolution; and
• personal health behavior.

FRED is available through open source in the hopes of making large-scale agent-based epidemic models more useful to the policy-making community, the research community, and as a teaching tool for students in public health. Access FRED

Click here to view the All about FRED video.

Heat Vulnerability Index

This case study follows the development of a public health informatics tool from the identification of the problem to the creation of an online app. It focuses on the purposes of a Heat Vulnerability Index and explores how it can be used to assist our communities. Click here to view this resource

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

• The Electronic Preventive Services is an application designed to help primary care clinicians identify appropriate clinical preventive services for their patients. The tool can be used to search and browse U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations.

• The United States Health Information Knowledgebase is an online, publicly accessible registry and repository of health care-related metadata, specifications, and standards.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984, BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world.

• Epi Info™ is a free tool allowing users to create easy data entry forms, databaseS, and data analyses with epidemiologic statistics, maps, and graphs. It is used for outbreak investigations; developing small to mid-sized disease surveillance systems; and as analysis, visualization, and reporting components of larger systems.

• Introduction to Public Health Informatics
  On Demand I 9/14/2017 I Recorded Webinar
  This video uses the metaphor of building a house to show how informaticians build an information system working closely with programmers, network and database administrators, security specialists, and Web designers.

• The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report series is CDC’s primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations.

• The National Center for Health Statistics is a rich source of information about America's health. The site provides quick and easy access to the wide range of information and data available including links to additional sources of health information.

• The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of people in the U.S.

• Since 1957 the National Health Interview Survey has monitored the health of the nation. Data on a broad range of health topics are collected through personal household interviews and results provide data to track health status, health care access, and progress toward achieving national health objectives.

• Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) is an easy-to-use, menu-driven system for the analysis of public health data. Users can access statistical research data published by CDC, as well as reference materials, reports, and guidelines on health-related topics. WONDER online databases provide data dissemination, online data query capabilities, analysis, visualization, and reporting for public health data collections.

FedStats

FedStats is the gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. federal agencies on a variety of topics.

HealthData.gov

HealthData.gov makes high value health data more accessible in the hopes of better health outcomes for all. Information includes clinical care provider quality information, nationwide health service provider directories, databases of the latest medical and scientific knowledge, consumer product data, community health performance information, government spending data, and much more.

HealthIT.gov

Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap

The nation relies on health IT to securely, efficiently, and effectively share electronic health information with patient consent to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people. Interoperability will transform our health system from a static one to a learning health system that improves individual, community, and population health.

Healthy People 2030

Healthy People 2030 provides science-based, national goals and objectives with 10-year targets designed to guide national health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve the health of all people in the U.S.

HRSA

The HRSA Data Warehouse (HDW) integrates HRSA-generated data with external sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, enabling users to gather relevant and meaningful information about health care programs and the populations they serve. The warehouse can be used to access and create charts, maps, and reports.

National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine provides open access to more than a hundred datasets, databases, applications, and application interfaces related to a broad range of biomedical topics.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

• Advancing Interoperable Social Determinants of Health: Building a Playbook

  On Demand I 5/26/2017 I Recorded Webinar

  This webinar focused on the current state of interoperability of social determinants of health (SDOH) screening and assessment tools in care delivery; described their role in newer care and payment models; and provided an understanding of the principles of interoperability and how to leverage health IT to support the use of SDOH in clinical practice to improve clinical decision support and quality measurement, care coordination, and population health management.

• Learn Health IT
  On Demand I 9/2017 I Self-guided Modules
  The twenty-five subject areas, searchable by topic and keyword, range from the history of health IT in the U.S. to project management and instructional design.

United States Census Bureau

The Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. Data is collected on topics including population, economy, education, emergency preparedness, employment, and health and is used to create news, publications, surveys/programs, videos, visualizations, and working papers. The Census Bureau conducts nearly 100 surveys and censuses every year. Data from the surveys and censuses are available in American FactFinder and TIGERweb.

The Census Bureau also offers a wide range of training opportunities throughout the year. These trainings demonstrate how to find and use Census data for everyday uses, including informing business planning, supporting grant proposals and research projects, planning of local schools and hospitals, and much more.

OTHER RESOURCES

American Medical Informatics Association

The American Medical Informatics Association focuses on those aspects of public health that enable the development and use of inter-operable information systems for public health functions such as biosurveillance, outbreak management, electronic laboratory reporting, and prevention.

Community Commons

Community Commons provides context and tools for integrating social, economic, education, health, and environmental data visualizations. Users can create maps, reports, community health needs assessments, as well as asset mapping and other data visualizations. The tools can be utilized to explore educational effects on health disparities, identify natural and built environment resources, and to identify vulnerable populations.

County Health Rankings and Roadmaps

The annual County Health Rankings bring actionable data and strategies to communities to make it easier for people to be healthy where they live and work. The Rankings illustrate what we know when it comes to what is making people sick or healthy and the Roadmaps show what we can do to create healthier spaces.

The State Summary Reports provide a snapshot of how health is influenced by our surroundings. The Reports can be used to help communities identify issues and opportunities for local health improvement, as well as to garner support for initiatives among government agencies, health care providers, community organizations, business leaders, policy makers, and the public.

The Health Gaps Reports explore how wide gaps are throughout each state and what is driving those differences. The Reports can help users understand what health gaps are and why they matter; the size and nature of the health gaps among counties; what factors are influencing the health of residents; and what state and local communities can do to address health gaps.

FrameWorks Institute

The Reframing Public Health Informatics toolkit is a resource to assist public health administrators in communicating the importance of the field of public health informatics to staff and stakeholders. The toolkit includes a collection of framing research, recommendations, communications, and illustrations.

National Quality Forum

The National Quality Forum Quality Positioning System Tool (QPS) helps users find the endorsed measures they need. Search by measure title or number, as well as by condition, care setting, or measure steward. Use QPS to learn from other measure users about how they select and use measures in their quality improvement programs.

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics

The Journal is an excellent resource for current and latest developments in the field of Public Health Informatics.

Practical Playbook

The Practical Playbook  is a free online resource for those working to build or embrace collaborations between public health and primary care.

Public Health Informatics Institute

The Public Health Informatics Institute aims to improve the use of information to achieve better public health outcomes.

On Demand I 1/22/2016 I Podcast Series

The Inform Me, Informatics podcasts follow one public health professional's journey to better understand public health informatics. Join Jessica Hill as she talks to some of the field's top experts and explores what makes this evolving discipline a bedrock of effective public health practice.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• The  Data for Health initiative aims to understand how individuals and communities think about using data from a wide range of sources to build a culture of health. The report explores how data can be collected, shared, protected, and translated in ways that are useful to individuals, organizations, and communities.

  Copyright 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Data for Health, Learning What Works.

• Pioneering Ideas

  On Demand I 2016 I Podcast
  

  Highlighting emerging technologies and ingenuity, the Pioneering Ideas Podcast features projects linking public health informatics with practice. In Every Breath Counts, a team from Louisville, Kentucky designs an innovative approach where patients use GPS-enabled inhalers that allow scientists to pinpoint the geographic location of the triggers of asthma flare-ups. Pairing this data with other sources, including traffic patterns and air quality, this program is an example of public health informatics, public health policy, and community collaboration.

  Copyright 2016. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Using Social Determinants of Health Data to Improve Health Care and Health: A Learning Report

  This report aims to provide foundations with a perspective on the emerging intersection of social determinants of health (SDOH), health care systems, and social and other services. The report considers what technologies can be used and shared across sectors to accurately and effectively capture SDOH data to improve health and well-being.

  Copyright 2016. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

UNC Carolina Population Center

Initiated in 1994, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), is the largest, most comprehensive longitudinal survey of adolescents ever undertaken. Beginning with an in-school questionnaire administered to a nationally representative sample of students in grades 7-12, the study followed up with a series of in-home interviews. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents’ social, economic, psychological, and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships, providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviors in adolescence are linked to health and achievement outcomes in young adulthood. The later wave of interviews expanded the collection of biological data to understand the social, behavioral, and biological linkages in health trajectories as the Add Health cohort ages through adulthood.