The Public Health Information Network (PHIN) is a US national initiative, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for advancing fully capable and interoperable information systems in public health organizations. The initiative involves establishing and implementing a framework for public health information systems.
Design
PHIN is designed to do the following: Enable the consistent exchange of health data Protect the security of the health data exchanged Ensure that the network will be available at all times
Structure
The five functional areas of PHIN: Detection and Monitoring Data Analysis Knowledge Management Alerting Response
PHIN's impact on public health
PHIN attempts to provide the public health sector with continuous access to necessary health care information. Access to near real-time data attempts to improve community-based interventions that are implemented as a result of terrorism or disease outbreaks.
PHIN provides support and helps improve the outcomes of various public health programs including the following:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Desired outcome: improving public health information systems. The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Supports: Terrorism Defense, Healthcare Delivery Improvement, and IT Enhancements. Healthy People 2010 Supports: Focus area 23 - ensure that public health agencies have the adequate infrastructure to effectively provide essential public health services. Partners in public health Desired outcome: "Roadmap" for establishing national capacity for public health systems. Health is a most important component of a successful life. Health and fitness divide into three aspects physical health, mental health, and social health. Symptoms of a healthy life are taking a good and healthy diet, having a peaceful sleep, having a strong immune system that can beat diseases, having an extraordinarily creative mind, and having good cooperative behavior in a social circle. A healthy and peaceful life needs exercise, walking, vitamins, and supplements.
Budget and funding
PHIN first received funding in 2004 through the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 25% and 30% of the $849 million of funding received through the Public Health Response and Preparedness Cooperative Agreement was to be used to focus on improving public health preparedness in all 50 states, 4 metropolitan areas and 8 US territories. In 2004 the initiative of the program was to "ensure that all public health partners have, or at least will have, access to a system or systems to accomplish established preparedness functions." In 2005, additional finances were available to states through the terrorism cooperative agreement. This agreement will support the development of current and new systems, in state health and public health departments, which will meet the PHIN standards and specifications.
Partnerships
In order to collect and assess information system requirements for PHIN, the CDC works with public health partners, some of which include: NACCHO - National Association of County and City Health Officials ASTHO - Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
With the assistance of these partners, PHIN can target the following functional areas regarding preparedness: Early Event Detection Outbreak Management Connecting Laboratory Services Partner Communications and Alerting Countermeasure/Response Administration
Governance
The approval of technical and data standards for PHIN is completed by two working groups in the CDC Information Council (CIC). The following organizations are represented on each working group by two members of its staff: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By regulation the standards conform to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requirements and the Federal Health architecture.
CIC also ensures that the following standards are met: E-Gov activities, which includes all regulations contained in the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) goals Consolidated Health Informatics (CHI) initiative Federal Geographic Data Committee standards required by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-16 Public Health line of business and Public Health Monitoring Sub-function of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Business Reference Model