Skip to main content

Public Health Information Standards

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Public Health Informatics and Information Systems

Part of the book series: Health Informatics ((HI))

  • 8435 Accesses

Abstract

Standards are one of the most efficient ways to prevent data silos, achieve system interoperability, and promote the value of data. Public health’s growing use of electronic data interchange lends increasing urgency to the need to adopt and promote standards, and to participate in standards development as a fully-engaged partner.

However, public health and its many partners must agree upon both the selection and value of standards in order to overcome the significant barriers and challenges to standards adoption. Implementation of standards is complex and resource-intensive, sometimes unevenly more so for one of the partners involved in data interchange.

In this chapter, standards are categorized into process standards and data or content standards. After reviewing a number of the most common standards utilized in public health, we focus in more depth upon three of the most important – HL7®, LOINC®, and SNOMED CT®.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. HealthIT.gov. Policymaking, regulation, & strategy. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/meaningful-use

  2. Jernigan DB, Davies J, Sim A. Data standards in public health informatics. In: O’Carroll PW, Yasnoff WA, Ward ME, Ripp LH, Martin EL, editors. Public health informatics and information systems. New York: Springer; 2003. p. 213–38.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS statistics and surveillance. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/qa/generalqa.htm

  4. International Organization for Standardization. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm

  5. American National Standards Institute. About ANSI. Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.ansi.org/about_ansi/overview/overview.aspx?menuid=1#.UVNc5lcu-jg

  6. International Organization for Standardization. Standards development. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development.htm

  7. Panackal AA, M’ikanatha NM, Tsui F, McMahon J, Wagner MM, Dixon BW, et al. Automatic electronic laboratory-based reporting of notifiable infectious diseases at a large health system. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002;8(7):685–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP). Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.hitsp.org

  9. Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC). Health IT standards. Web-Resource Center. Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.phdsc.org/standards/health-information-tech-standards.asp

  10. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services. National Provider Identifier Standard. Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentstand

  11. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html.

  12. National Information Standards Organization. Understanding metadata. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf

  13. Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC). Health IT standards. Web-Resource Center. Information Exchanges Standards. Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.phdsc.org/standards/health-information/IE_Standards.asp

  14. Health Level Seven International. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: www.hl7.org

  15. International Organization for Standardization. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html

  16. Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC). Health IT standards. Web-Resource Center. Information Exchanges Standards. Cited 12 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.phdsc.org/standards/health-information/IE_Standards.asp

  17. Health Level Seven (HL7®). Clinical Document Architecture (CDA). Cited 27 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.hl7.org/implement/standards/cda.cfm

  18. Dolin RH, Alschuler L, Boyer S, Beebe C, Behlen FM, Biron PV, Shabo A. HL7® Clinical Document Architecture, Release 2. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2006;13(1):30–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Health Level Seven (HL7®). Frequently asked questions. Cited 12 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.hl7.org/about/FAQs/index.cfm

  20. LOINC® from Regenstrief. Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®). Cited 27 Jan 2013. Available from: http://loinc.org/

  21. International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. Cited 27 Jan 2013. Available from: http://www.ihtsdo.org/

  22. American Medical Association. CPT – current procedural terminology. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3113.html

  23. USGS: National Hydrography Dataset. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://nhd.usgs.gov/gnis.html

  24. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Information Technology Laboratory. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.nist.gov/itl/fips.cfm

  25. US Census Bureau. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ansi/statetables.html

  26. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Standard occupational classification. Cited 23 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.bls.gov/soc/home.htm

  27. US Census Bureau. North American Industry Classification System. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/

  28. US Health Information Knowledgebase. Health Information Technology Standards Panel. Cited 22 Mar 2013. Available from: http://ushik.ahrq.gov/ViewItemDetails?system=hitsp&itemKey=86685000

  29. Health IT Standards Federal Advisory Committee. Recommendations from the Public Health Surveillance Summer Camp. 2011. Cited 12 Mar 2013. Available from: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1817&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=28&mode=2&in_hi_userid=11673&cached=true#09281

  30. US Department of Health and Human Services. Health information technology: initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for electronic health record technology. Regulation Identification Number 0991-AB58. Washington, D.C.: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (US). 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  31. S&I Framework. Transitions of care (ToC) initiative. Cited 26 Mar 2013. Available from: http://wiki.siframework.org/Transitions+of+Care+(ToC)+Initiative

  32. FHIMS.org. Background on THE FHIM. Cited 26 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.fhims.org/background.html

  33. S&I Framework. Public Health Reporting Initiative. Cited 26 Mar 2013. Available from: http://wiki.siframework.org/Public+Health+Reporting+Initiative

  34. US National Library of Medicine. Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®). Cited 12 Mar 2013. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/Snomed/snomed_browsers.html

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. A. Magnuson PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Magnuson, J.A., Merrick, R., Case, J.T. (2014). Public Health Information Standards. In: Magnuson, J., Fu, Jr., P. (eds) Public Health Informatics and Information Systems. Health Informatics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4237-9_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4237-9_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4236-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4237-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics