Public health surveillance and meaningful use regulations: a crisis of opportunity

Abstract

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act is intended to enhance reimbursement of health care providers for meaningful use of electronic health records systems. This presents both opportunities and challenges for public health departments. To earn incentive payments, clinical providers must exchange specified types of data with the public health system, such as immunization and syndromic surveillance data and notifiable disease reporting. However, a crisis looms because public health's information technology systems largely lack the capabilities to accept the types of data proposed for exchange. Cloud computing may be a solution for public health information systems. Through shared computing resources, public health departments could reap the benefits of electronic reporting within federal funding constraints.

FIGURE 1—

Architecture of a Platform as a Service public health cloud platform with core services and interchangeable applications to use those services to provide public health functions. Note. CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; PH = public health.

FIGURE 2—

Platform as a Service public health cloud with 3 public health departments, each with its own copy of the platform with different applications based on the same core services. Note. CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; PH = public health.