Towards Electronic Health Information Exchanges between Clinical Care and Public Health

Health departments need timely data from physicians to respond to health threats and issue preventive measures. These data have great potential for physicians informing clinical-decisions. The current public health data systems however, suffer from underreporting as physicians may not be aware of the public health reporting requirements. The current paper-based reporting burdens physicians who provide the same information on multiple forms of varying formats to various public health programs. The absence of direct communication between public health programs and physicians is a barrier for delivering quality care. Electronic health information exchanges (HIEs) can improve public health reporting mechanisms and enable bi-directional communication between clinicians and public health.

The goal of this study is to inform the development of electronic HIEs between clinicians and health department by documenting (1) physician experience with current public health data reporting and (2) what data, information, or knowledge from health departments can benefit physicians.

An online survey was conducted on ambulatory physicians recruited through professional medical associations (State and Regional Primary Care Associations, AAP, etc.). The survey results show the current reporting patterns by ambulatory physicians to health departments and type of feedback physicians are interested to receive back from health departments.

Electronic HIEs between health departments and physicians can improve quality of public health data systems, ease the burden of public health data reporting and enable communications between clinicians and public health staff. Providing feedback to physicians will help reinforce the importance of their participation in public health practices. The types of information that physicians are interested to receive from health departments will inform the development of electronic HIEs between clinical care and public health for their common goal of delivering quality care and protecting the public's health.