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AMIA Advocates National Health Information System in Fight Against National Health Threats

Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, California.

Correspondence and reprints: Paul C. Tang, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, 795 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94301; e-mail: <tang{at}smi.stanford.edu>.

To protect public health and national safety, AMIA recommends that the federal government dedicate technologic resources and medical informatics expertise to create a national health information infrastructure (NHII). An NHII provides the underlying information utility that connects local health providers and health officials through high-speed networks to national data systems necessary to detect and track global threats to public health. AMIA strongly recommends the accelerated development and wide-scale deployment of electronic public health surveillance systems, computer-based patient records, and disaster-response information technologies. Such efforts hold the greatest potential to protect our citizens from disaster and to deliver the best health care if disaster strikes.