Proposed WHO Collaborating Center for Public Health Informatics at NCPHI, CDC

Accurate, reliable, and timely public health information is essential to improve global health and ensure health security in today's globalized, interconnected, increasingly complex, and rapidly changing world. One of the greatest threats arises from outbreaks of epidemic-prone diseases.  Such outbreaks occur in increasing numbers, fuelled by rapid urbanization, environmental mismanagement, food production and trade, and antibiotic misuse.  Shared vulnerability to these threats requires collective action, international cooperation, information sharing, and capacity to detect and contain threats at points of origin. World Health Organization's (WHO) Departments of Health Statistics and Informatics, the International Health Regulations (IHR) Coordination Program and CDC's National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) have proposed to establish WHO Collaborating Center for Public Health Informatics (WHO CC) combining their technical resources and mandates for leadership, shaping health agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options,  providing technical support to countries, and monitor the evolving global heath situation. The proposed WHO CC will focus on challenges hindering global information exchanges and overcoming “siloed” systems, tools, and services. Specifically, the Center will advance global informatics standards and interoperability; support distributed information exchange and sharing including strengthening the Global Health Observatory; contribute to shift from development of “information system silos” to distributed and synergistic development of a suite of globally shareable interoperable tools services; provide informatics support to the implementation of the IHR (2005); and advance the science and best informatics principles, strategies, and practices. Progress in informatics, recent legal frameworks, global health and eHealth initiatives, are providing unprecedented opportunities to strengthen, integrate, and interoperate health information systems and tools ensuring rapid access and sharing of information to respond effectively to routine and emergent health threats. WHO CC's proposed goals, structure, regulatory drivers, strategic framework, stakeholders in light of current global informatics challenges and opportunities will be described and discussed.