Track: Information Technology in Health Care
Minitrack: Cyberinfrastructure for Public Health and Health Services

The 2003 National Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Panel on Infrastructure found that “a new age has dawned in scientific and engineering research, pushed by continuing progress in computing, information, and communication technology, and pulled by the expanding complexity, scope, and scale of today’s challenges. The capacity of this technology has crossed thresholds that now make possible a comprehensive ‘cyberinfrastructure’ on which to build new types of scientific and engineering knowledge environments and organizations and to pursue research in new ways and with increased efficacy.”

At HICSS-42, a special day-long symposium was held to examine the application of cyberinfastructure to public health and health services. Several key findings emerged from these discussions and form the topics of this minitrack. They include the following as potential topics:
 

Infrastructure Requirements and Developments:

• Interoperability Requirements for Achieving Cyberinfrastructure in Public Health and Health Services

• Legacy versus Greenfield Approaches to Achieving Next Generation Health Cyberinfrastructures

• Emerging US Networks (National Health Information Network (NHIN), Public Health Information Network (PHIN), Cancer Research Network (CRN)) 

• International Networks as models for applications and research cyberinfrastructure and

• Global Cyberinfrastructure Needs and Advances to Improve Health Services Conditions in Developing and Developed Regions

Public Health and Health Services Innovations:

• Use of Cyberinfrastructures to Monitor and Prevent Public Health Outbreaks

• Demonstrations of Health Provider Use of Electronic Systems to Improve Health Service and Clinical Trial Delivery

• Action Research on Cyberinfrastructure systems in the areas of Health Promotion, Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Emergency Response, and Chronic Disease and Disability Management

• Public Health Organizational and Constraints and Innovations in Creating Cyberinfrastructure Systems at the Local Level

• Social Networking Approaches to Achieving Cyberinfrastructure uses in Health Services, Public Health and Research Collaboration

Users, Stakeholders, and Policy:

• Use of Personal Health Records in Diverse Communities and Public Health Implications

• Cyberinfrastruture Considerations within Vulnerable Populations, including Health Communication Issues and Innovations

• Cyberinfrastructure Use in Health Informatics and Medical Education and Training and Related Innovations in Teaching

• Role of Cyberinfrastructure in Achieving Health Care Reform and Related Global Policy and Scientific Advancements

The minitrack in interested in papers and presentations on these and related issues, including academic, industry, and policy perspectives. Special sessions, tutorials and lectures are also being considered on specific cyberinfrastructure for public health and health services topics.


Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Thomas Horan (Primary Contact)
School of Information Science
Claremont Graduate University
130 East Ninth Street Claremont, CA 91711
Phone: 909-607-9302
Fax: 909-621-8564
Email: tom.horan@cgu.edu

Abdul Shaikh
Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch
BRP, DCCPS, National Cancer Institute
6130 Executive Blvd, EPN 7365
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7365
Phone: 301-594-6690
Fax: 301-480-2187
Email: shaikhab@mail.nih.gov

William Chismar
William Chismar
Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
2404 Maile Way, C204, Honolulu HI 96822
Phone: 808-9569789
Fax: 808-9569889
Email: chismar@hawaii.edu

Sue Feldman
Claremont Graduate University
School of Information Systems and Technology
130 E. 9 th Street, Claremont, CA 91711
Phone: 909-607-9395
Email: sue.feldman@cgu.edu