Translating public health informatics curriculum to practice at the University of Utah

Public health informatics is a rapidly emerging field that targets the application of informatics methods and tools to meet the needs of public health practice, training, and research. To effectively perform public health informatics practice and research, an informatician must understand core informatics principles and the unique goals, environment, systems, and problems addressed by public health practitioners. To achieve this end, the public health informatics course at the University of Utah has evolved into an active learning environment with informatics students performing case studies and conducting a semester-long field project. Each student works with a public health practitioner and evaluates an existing surveillance system (e.g., a notifiable disease reporting system, hospital quality surveillance system, behavioral risk factor surveillance system). Students demonstrate an interest and ability to conduct informatics research in a public health setting and address questions relevant to public health practice. After five years of developing a public health informatics curriculum with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Library of Medicine, the public health informatics curriculum has become a core component in the informatics training program. The goal of this course is to provide a broad overview of the discipline of public health informatics and then focus on specific prioritized topics relevant to the practice of informatics to support the mission of public health. The audience for the introductory course includes: a) informatics students or practitioners seeking an introduction to the informatics principles applied to public health problems; and b) public health practitioners seeking basic informatics training. The mix of participants creates an environment whereby students share their unique skills and background. An online distant learning course is planned. The in-class and online course will be described and opportunities for collaboration with others to develop case studies and evaluation projects will be explored.