2024 Public Health Informatics Profile Highlights Need for Increased Investments to Expand Informatics Services to Improve Health WASHINGTON , Aug. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the voice of the over 3,300 local health departments across the country, released its 2024 Public Health Informatics Profile . This is a first-of-its-kind assessment that presents the newest data on local health department informatics capacity, activities for local public health information systems, and opportunities to strengthen local informatics capacity nationwide.
The report highlights current informatics activities for local public health and identifies challenges and opportunities to strengthen local informatics capacity. NACCHO found that most local health departments were working on data modernization projects as of early 2024, despite only a quarter reporting receipt of supplemental funding dedicated to this work. In addition, although use of artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning was not common, nearly 40% of those local health departments not currently using AI were somewhat or very interested in supplementing their efforts with AI in the future.
The assessment included a nationally representative random sample of 1,200 local health departments. Other notable findings include: Informatics Workforce Capacity – While local health departments had internal staff that could perform informatics activities, it was not n.