Report Publish Date: April 2021
This report recommends ways to improve health and health equity in the U.S. by transforming how we collect and use public health data.
The authors shared the following recommendations:
“The COVID-19 pandemic shined a bright light on public health data and infrastructure in the United States,” the authors write. “It made painfully obvious what many people in the public and private health sectors already suspected: underinvestment in public health data and infrastructure left the country unprepared to launch a timely, efficient and effective response.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation commissioned the authors of this report to recommend ways to improve the U.S. public health infrastructure and advance health equity.
The authors conducted an environmental scan, interviewed 22 thought leaders in 14 interviews in February 2021, and held an advisory group discussion with 11 of the thought leaders on February 25, 2021.
“Ultimately, this report aims to become the basis for a ‘call-to-action' that underscores the need to strengthen the public health data and infrastructure and build back better so that the U.S. public health system is better prepared to promote health and health equity and protect against health threats.”
—Judith Kerr, Public Health Informatics Institute
“Implementing these recommendations will help pave the way for true transformation of public health data, infrastructure and vital functions,” the authors write.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to rethink the way the U.S. public health system functions. It underscored the need for public health data and infrastructure to be timely, efficient, effective and equitable in its response to the next national emergency or global pandemic. To better understand how to transform public health data and infrastructure to protect health and achieve health equity, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) commissioned the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) to conduct an environmental scan, host a series of interviews with thought leaders from the public and private sectors, and convene an advisory group to inform the development of this report and recommendations that are included herein.
The key findings are presented in two parts. The first part describes key insights thought leaders shared during interviews and advisory group meetings. The second part describes a number of initiatives and innovations thought leaders identified as laying the groundwork for transformation of public health dat
and infrastructure. While the first part focuses on challenges and opportunities, the second part highlights progress public health has already made (despite severe underfunding, workforce shortages and other challenges) and should provide encouragement that the exchange and use of public health data can be more functional, efficient and effective.
The resounding recommendation from thought leaders across multiple public and private organizations is that transformation of public health data and infrastructure must occur now. Despite the progress made by some previous initiatives and innovations, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront that fractured parts of the current system still exist, and that short-term fixes will not suffice. It has provided the sense of urgency to undertake more overarching transformation.
The following recommendations highlight the initial steps to transform the public health system into one that is equitable and can be effectively used to monitor, respond and improve the health and well-being of all Americans:
1. Convene a multi-disciplinary group of thought leaders from the public and private sectors to develop a vision, strategy, road map, policy framework and call-to-action for developing a nationwide strategy and common functional architecture to transform the way that significant public health data is gathered and used.
2. Promote efforts to make equity the cornerstone of all public health activities by incentivizing public health systems to implement approaches to gathering and using public health data that put communities at the center of decisions about what data are collected, how they are collected and how they are used.
3. Sponsor the development of a nationwide requirements project on a core public health information system, such as infectious disease surveillance, to translate business needs into data and systems requirements and demonstrate the benefits of a shared understanding of the actions, processes and capabilities needed to ensure the system is successful.
4. Invest in the public health workforce to ensure that public health continues to benefit from a workforce that has the appropriate technical skills and reflects diversity nationally.
Public Health Informatics Institute, April 2021
This study and report were conducted and created by the following people.
