HIT 517: Public Health Informatics

Public Health Informatics provides an overview of the evolving use of data and information systems to improve public health, and the increasing role of AI technologies in the field of public health. Various public health topics will be reviewed including: history of public health, structure and functions, public health data, surveillance tools, epidemiology principles, environmental health, health communication strategies, and global health informatics. Information systems and tools particularly relevant to key public health areas will also be covered. We learn about community health assessments and investigate the use of public health data to monitor the health of the community at different demographic and/or spatial levels. The course will examine informatics issues that complicate their use for public health, such as data and vocabulary standards, government policy, privacy and security, interoperability, data integration, etc. The course content will be delivered through a combination of lectures, presentations, in class exercises, and discussions. Students will gain hands-on experience in how informatics can be used to help solve important public health and global health problems.