Public Health Information & Technology

The following is a list of web sites of just a few of the many collaborative, 'open' public health IT projects, software products, services, or health information sources worth checking out. They are all available in the 'public domain' or as 'open source' solutions.

•  AHRQ Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP) - A free, on-line query system that provides access to health statistics and information on hospital inpatient and emergency department utilization.
•  CDC Public Health Information Network (PHIN) - A national CDC initiative to improve the capacity of public health practitioners and researchers to use and exchange a range of information electronically.
• CDC WONDER Public Health Online Databases - Speeds and simplifies access to a wide array of public health information and statistics collected by the CDC to state and local health departments, the Public Health Service, and the academic public health community.
• Epi Info & Epi Map - A free, public domain software tool that can generate epidemiologic statistics, tables, graphs, and maps.
• Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)  - A public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related visits to hospital emergency departments (EDs) and drug-related deaths.
• FDA MedWatch - A gateway for finding clinically important safety information and reporting serious problems with human medical products.
• Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network - A WHO technical collaboration of health institutions and networks which pool human and technical resources for the rapid identification, confirmation and response to outbreaks of international importance.
• Immunization Information Systems - A tool to increase and sustain high vaccination coverage by consolidating vaccination records of children from multiple providers, generating reminder and recall vaccination notices, and providing vaccination coverage assessments.
• Partners in Information Access for Public Health - A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries which provides timely, convenient access to selected public health resources on the Internet.
• PopHealth Reporting Project - An open source tool that integrates with a provider’s electronic health record (EHR) system to produce summary quality measures on the provider’s patient population and streamlines the reporting of these measures.
• Public Health Institute - An independent, nonprofit California based organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being and quality of life for people across the nation and around the world.
• Real-time Outbreak & Disease Surveillance (RODS) - Free software for public health surveillance, RODS collects and analyzes disease surveillance data in real time.

These are just a sub-set of the many other 'open' health IT solutions listed on the COSI 'Open' Health IT web site, e.g. Open EHRs, Open PHRs, Open HIEs, Mobile Apps, etc.

Are you or your organization using another free and 'open' public health IT solution that you would be willing to share with us?  Tell us about it.