Learn about the shared services model created for public health for a roadmap to governance, knowledge management and collaboration.

Public health programs are linked by a common set of services  that function as separate programs and manage their data in silos without regard to standardized knowledge representation or common identifiers for providers or patients.  We offer a different approach - a shared services model that is based on the ten essential services of Public Health as defined by the Institute of Medicine.  The model specifies roles within those ten  services and draws on nationally-recognized information standards and best practice protocols while allowing programs the flexibility to tailor their unique aspects, yet link  common elements through a shared metadata knowledge base. 

Work underway is associated with health information exchange (HIE) with electronic health records (EHRs) and has focused the priority for initial development or acquisition of shared services to five of the ten Public Health functions along with Administrative Capacity, as shown in Figure 1 below.  These five functions are most likely to play a role in HIE.

The shared services model encourages collaborative utilization of vocabulary and code set standards, planning of an integrated approach to development of shared systems and a framework for implementation of future programs.