CDC's Communities of Practice Program (CoPP) for Strengthening PHIN

A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of professionals, bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems and a common pursuit of solutions.  A Community of Practice nurtures new knowledge, stimulates innovation, and fosters technical collaborations within an organization and across organizations and geographic jurisdictions. In the Open Conversation Sessions at the 2007 PHIN Conference, Partners recommended that forming robust communities around functional and technical PHIN areas would be an effective strategy for strengthening PHIN. The Communities of Practice Program (CoPP) at CDC located within the National Center for Public Health Informatics in the Division of Alliance Management and Consultation will provide the leadership and resources to facilitate, communicate, educate, train, and support a PHIN Community of Practice (PHIN CoP) and the associated network of communities focused around domain areas necessary to PHIN (PHIN CopNet).  The PHIN CoP and PHIN CoPNet will provide value to individual community members, knowledge domains such as biosurveillance and vocabulary, community members’ organizations (e.g., CDC, state or local PH Departments, laboratories or hospitals), and PHIN and the larger public health community.  Members will have opportunities for continual learning, greater access to domain area expertise, and personal development.  Domain areas will benefit from advancements in the development and usage of standards, best practices, and technical innovations within their domains. These opportunities and advancements will provide CDC and the Public Health Partners that together form PHIN with synergies, knowledge sharing, and technical solutions within and across their organizations and jurisdictions.  This presentation will provide an overview of the new Program including business need, scope, launch phases, and proposed organizational and governance models.  Session attendees will have an opportunity to learn how they can participate in the planning and development of the PHIN CoP and associated domain PHIN Communities.