Degree Name
DrPH (Doctor of Public Health)
Program
Public Health
Date of Award
5-2026
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Megan Quinn
Committee Members
Michael Smith, Walid Alali
Abstract
Public health informatics is particularly critical for the design and implementation of the systems and networks that support the activities of any public health jurisdiction. From a practical perspective, public health informatics entails the information management systems and processes critical to the execution of an organization’s public health mandate including improving health outcomes at the population over individual level, supporting a variety of intervention types and modalities (not just clinical or medical), and generally operates within the government. Interventions within that scope include disease surveillance or registry systems like those to support the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, disease-specific registries like cancer or stroke registries, or outbreak detection systems such as Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics. Improving public health informatics practice at Federal, State, and Local health departments and agencies has been a focus of many organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, among others.
This study included a scoping review to describe the current state of public health informatics practice within governmental agencies as well as describe the evolution of that practice to its current state. Surveillance systems and disease registries was the most frequently published informatics topic followed by health information exchange. Examining survey data from local health departments during a similar time period found that most agencies have implemented syndromic surveillance and immunization information systems with relatively few implementing health information exchange. Barriers to implementing additional informatics activities centered around control and governance of IT functions. When national funding schemes for informatics activities were cross walked with these topics, it emerged that there are likely additional activities at governmental health agencies which reflect their informatics priorities such as data standardization, electronic health records use, and disease forecasting which could be considered in future funding opportunities.
Document Type
Dissertation - embargo
Recommended Citation
Goodin, Amanda K., "The Evolution and Current Status of Public Health Informatics Practice at Local Health Departments in the Unites States" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4659. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4659
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
