Heterogeneity and Interoperability in Local Public Health Information Systems.

Abstract

The growing streams of digital health information present opportunities for improving public health through better disease surveillance, faster communication, more targeted interventions, and overall improved management of public health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has exposed challenges that remain for collecting and communicating timely, accurate, and complete public health data across the United States’ fragmented and often outdated public health data systems. In particular, interoperability across digital surveillance and health care information systems severely hampered the national response. As the US government and public health systems are turning toward postpandemic planning and recovery, it is useful to understand the heterogeneity and interoperability of public health information systems used during the COVID-19 response. In this article, we present evidence from NACCHO’s 2020 Forces of Change survey focused on the electronic infrastructure of local health departments (LHDs). In particular, we focus on describing the local adoption of interoperable systems and characterizing the breadth of electronic platforms used by LHDs.