Why is health information technology and health informatics important for public health?
Principles of public health define a special set of informatics issues and challenges. The type, extensiveness, and presentation of data needed to address public health functions present unique requirements for acquisition, storage, analysis and presentation of large amounts of data about healthy people or patients. More than ever, there is a need for a cadre of professionals who can understand and apply information and computer science technology to public health practice and learning. Public health informatics requires the application of knowledge from numerous disciplines, particularly information science, computer science, management, organizational theory, psychology, communications, political science, and law. Its practice must incorporate knowledge from the other fields that contribute to public health, including epidemiology, microbiology, toxicology, health promotion, and statistics.
