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1. Competencies for Public Health Informaticians (click for PDF)

The Competencies for Public Health Informaticians reflect the skills and knowledge necessary for effective public health informatics practice. This work was funded by the CDC in a cooperative agreement with the Association for Schools of Public Health.

In November 2005, CDC funded a cooperative agreement with the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). The project proposed by Dr. Bryant Karras, MD, University of Washington, developed a draft list of core competencies that reflect the skills and knowledge necessary for effective public health informatics (PHI) practice. These PHI competencies are intended for use by schools of public health that develop informatics programs, other graduate-level schools that teach PHI (classes, certificates, tracks or degrees), organizations that sponsor PHI training programs, and by agencies that develop position descriptions, work expectations, and job announcements for public health informaticians. The work builds upon the recent competencies development efforts by O'Carroll, Richards, et al, which defined informatics competencies required by public health professionals (see below).

Competencies for Public Health Informaticians is now live online at the
following URL:   http://www.cdc.gov/InformaticsCompetencies/

2. Informatics Competencies for Public Health Professionals (click for PDF)

A variety of training courses and other learning resources have been developed that address one or more aspects of the application of information technology to public health. However, this training has been developed in relative isolation, with no consensus as to the specific informatics competencies public health professionals ought to have.

To address this issue, a working group of public health informaticians and educators, led by Dr. Patrick O'Carroll, Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, University of Washington, was formed to draft this consensus set of public health informatics competencies (released August 2002). Download this file for a description of the competencies and the process of developing them.

The Process

Dr. Karras received funding in November, 2005. The proposal called for the formation of a Leadership Group, defined the roles of Group's members, and suggested individuals to fill those roles. Dr. Karras, along with Dr. Denise Koo of the Office for Workforce Development at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), finalized the Leadership Group members.

The Leadership Group then identified subject matter experts in the field of public health informatics who could provide insight into what competencies – skills and knowledge – a public health informatics specialist should have. The Leadership Group invited representatives from four different stakeholder groups to be Working Group Consultants. These groups included academic institutions with schools of public health, federal public health institutions, state public health agencies, local (city and county) public health agencies, and non-profit/professional associations with an interest in health-related informatics. Several meetings were held in Seattle. By the end of the meetings, the group had a draft definition of the public health informatics specialist, and had collectively defined an outline of the competencies for that individual. The group decided to accept the eight domains identified in the Council on Linkages document to address the public health competencies, and then added a ninth domain for Informatics.

Following the in-person meetings, Ginny Hare, the project manager/communications specialist for the project, and Jac Davies, a facilitator and synthesizer for the project, reviewed existing competencies documents, notes from the meeting, and the final outline to develop draft competencies. During this time, edits and suggestions to the draft target definition were collected from the Working Group Consultants and Leadership Group members by email, and a target definition was developed that in fact consisted of two levels of professionals – a mid-level and a senior-level public health informaticist (or informatician).

Project Team

The project activities were directed by a Leadership Group, which consists of individuals from CDC's Office of Workforce Development and the University of Washington, along with consultants and University of Washington staff.

A second group, known as the Working Group Consultants (members listed below), consisted of informatics subject matter experts around the country who represent academia, state and local public health agencies, non-profit professional associations with an interest in medical and public health informatics, and federal institutions. These individuals, along with the Leadership Group members help develop and refine the definition for the public health informatics specialist and the associated competencies.

A third group, the Reviewers Group consisted of individuals who were unable to participate as working group consultants, and other individuals with an interest in the development of these competencies. These individuals were tasked with reviewing the draft competencies and providing feedback.

Working Group Consultants

• Milton Corn, MD, Director, Extramural Programs, NIH National Library of Medicine
• Don E. Detmer, MD, MA, Professor Emeritus and Professor of Medical Education, University of Virginia and Senior Advisor, American Medical Informatics Association
• Seth Foldy, MD, MPH, Consultant and former Director, Milwaukee Dept of Health
• Lawrence P. Hanrahan, PhD, MS, Chief Epidemiologist, Wisconsin Division of Public Health
• Ginny Hare, MS, National Association for Public Health Information Technology
• Martin LaVenture, PhD, MPH, Director, Public Health Informatics, Minnesota Dept of Health
• Cecil Lynch, MD, Associate Professor, Medical Informatics, University of California (Davis)
• Nancy K. Roderer, MLIS, AHIP, ACMI, Director, Division of Health Sciences Informatics, Johns Hopkins University
• Dave Ross, ScD, Director, Public Health Informatics Institute
• Thomas Savel, MD, Medical Officer, CDC National Center for Public Health Informatics
• Edward Sondik, PhD, Director, CDC National Center for Health Statistics