Medical Informatics and Preparedness

The terrorist attacks of September 2001 and the subsequent deliberate dissemination of anthrax have stimulated public awareness of the need in both the public health and clinical health care systems to quickly detect and respond to altered patterns of disease in communities across the nation. Debate over the capacity of the existing systems to fully respond to these demands has created a sense of urgency for immediate action to improve these functions. Public health resources were taxed to provide early detection and rapid response. The clinical care delivery system faced challenges of emergency response to urban casualties, highlighting the value of clinical information systems that facilitate information management in crisis situations.The effective application of informatics to these data collection, analysis, and dissemination tasks could allow the rapid deployment of systems that would greatly enhance our preparedness. Much of the informatics experience gained in health information system implementation efforts over the past several decades is directly applicable to the new challenges of bioterrorism and emergency response. By utilizing this collective knowledge in areas such as architecture, infrastructure, standards, and knowledge representation, newly created systems are more likely to yield maximum benefits. As an organization, AMIA is already focused on issues of public health informatics, having developed …