Public Health Informatics Workforce Skills and Needs: A Descriptive Analysis using the 2017 PH WINS

• Published in: European journal of public health Vol. 30; no. Supplement_5
• Main Authors: Dixon, B E, McFarlane, T D, Grannis, S J, Gibson, P J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford Publishing Limited (England) 01-09-2020
• Subjects: Ability; Clinical decision making; Cross-sectional studies; Data; Decision making; Discordance; Informatics; Leadership; Medical personnel; Polls & surveys; Public health; Respondents; Skills; Specialists; Urban areas; Workers; Workforce; United States > US
• ISSN: 1101-1262; 1464-360X
• DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.027

In 2017, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials fielded the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), a nationally representative sample of state-level (SHA) and local health department (LHD) public health workers in the United States. The survey was an opportunity to measure the PHI workforce as well as assess the informatics needs of the broader PH workforce.
We performed a cross-sectional study using the nationally representative 2017 PH WINS. A total of 17,136 SHA and 26,533 LHD employees participated in the survey.
Respondents were asked to rate selected PH competencies with respect to the importance to their day-to-day work (i.e., not important to very important) and their current skill level (e.g., unable to perform, beginner, proficient, expert). We examined skill gaps, defined as discordance between self-reported importance (i.e., need) and skill level, for example, those reporting the competency as “somewhat important” or “very important” and “unable to perform” or “beginner.”
Informaticians accounted for 1.1% of SHA respondents and 0.5% of LHD respondents working in a Big City Health Coalition agency, those that serve the top 30 most populous urban areas in the United States. While informaticians generally reported having the skills they needed for their jobs, other PH roles identified gaps. For example, 22.9% of clinical and laboratory workers felt the ability to “identify appropriate sources of data and information to assess the health of a community” was an important skill but they currently possessed low competency. This group similarly identified a gap with respect to collecting ‘valid data for use in decision making.'
An informatics-savvy health department requires PHI competencies not just among PHI specialists but also among front line workers, program area managers, and executive leadership. Discordance suggests that agencies should examine ways to enhance training for PHI-related competencies for all PH workers.