Public Health Data Sharing Policy and Informatics Initiatives at China CDC

Data should be made as widely and freely available as possible while safeguarding the privacy of research participants, and protecting confidential and proprietary data. In China, public health data are collected and full records are accessible to proper authorities.  These may be restricted to jurisdictional lines. Informatics introduces such possibilities as comparing with neighboring jurisdictions and other data comparisons that may require new policies to ensure both maximum and proper use of the data. Proper policies can facilitate informatics advances such as the application of predictive modeling to disease control and prevention research. The development of services for public health data sharing, particularly as applied to data mining, has become increasingly. A serious weakness within the field is lack of policies with respect to data collection, data set integration, and data sharing. Our goals are (1) to explore data integration strategy and promote the implementation of data-sharing policies; (2) to build a public health-related data sharing platform; (3) to integrate existing data mining tools. This paper describes our modest beginning with recommendations for requirements on data sharing policy, requirements for data sharing, and best practices for benchmark preparation and usage at China CDC. It also discusses current issues in data sharing in China to maximize the benefits of informatics and some issues of data sharing policies, such as the “who,” “when,” and “under what circumstances”, etc.  This may introduce possibilities for global public health data sharing as well.