Growth of Presentations in Informatics and Technology Confirms the Needs of HIIT

The utilization of health informatics and information technology has grown rapidly in public health. APHA is the largest public health professional organization in the US. Presentations accepted in APHA are treated as through the highest competition in quality. The number and content of presentations in its annual meetings represents a longitudinal spectrum of health informatics and information technology. This project aims to analyze the presentations from 2000-2007 both quantitatively and qualitatively as to their relation to health informatics and information technology. A retrospective review of presented APHA abstracts in the past eight conferences were reviewed and analyzed.

Quantitatively, the secular trend by the number of presentations shows a sharp increase from 2000 and stabilized in 2007. Both the number of content area covered and author's geographical representation turn heterogeneous. The content analysis indicates the uses of informatics and information technology in the past years were computer-based with web interface. The subject areas are across all formal units of APHA representing the unit size of APHA components. The findings support the increasing needs for a unit with common interest in health informatics and information technology.