Open Source Data Integration Solutions for PHIN Based Architecture

Public health informatics depends on information technology (IT) to link individual program area systems. A key characteristic of such linkages is enterprise integration (EI) which brings together software systems/services and practices across functional and organizational boundaries. EI is inherently a complex process that connects hardware, operating systems, programming language, databases, data models, data semantics, structural formats, applications, and human resources as well as policy and governance. The CDC sponsors the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) which supports the advancement of fully capable and interoperable information systems in public health jurisdictions. The underlying principles of PHIN are to create an environment within which state and local public health departments can integrate disparate data sources in order to gain and share information, increase quality of services, and enhance performance. This session will identify common public health challenges and provide examples that enable audience members to associate common issues within their own organization(s).  The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) solutions will then be framed within the PHIN requirements (paraphrased as follows):
• Required use of standards based interfaces (protocols, formats and terminologies).
• Ability for systems to create, send and receive data transmissions in standardized formats.
• Secure transmission of electronic messaging.
• Secure receipt of electronic messaging.
• Information security and availability enabled through the use of an information management system that guarantees data security and employs managed user authentication and authorization.
Building upon this foundation of concepts, the audience will be presented with open source technology solutions that have been evaluated and/or implemented by the FDOH to solve public health challenges.  The open source toolsets presented will include:
• CDC PHIN-MS & PHIN-MS RnR
• CDC PHIN VADS
• NHIN-Connect
• OpenESB
• Mirth Connect
• Mural
• Linux
• Subversion
• Trac
The session will conclude with a conceptual formulation of the described tools into a repeatable enterprise data integration architecture.