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Making the Most of Public Health Data
in California and Abroad
 

Interviewer: Madeline Roberts, PhD, MPH

In epidemiology, data is our love language. However, accessing curated data and growing a state and local public health workforce trained in informatics have presented challenges. California State University at Long Beach, University of California at Berkeley, and California state and local health departments are attempting to meet these challenges with a Public Health Information Technology (PHIT) partnership. Dr. Susan Ivey is contributing to this effort in her work as a UC Berkeley adjunct professor; she is also the Director of Research at Health Research for Action where she focuses on health services research and interventions among underserved populations. As Dr. Ivey explained, “The overarching goal [of the PHIT program] is to improve public health workforce capacity in the area of public health informatics and technology as well as to ensure we deliver a diverse set of workers in this new discipline.”

We spoke with Dr. Ivey and two of the UC Berkeley PHIT program students, Juliet Munyambanza and Brenda Nash. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

EpiMonitor: Please tell us a bit about how the idea began for this partnership between Berkeley and local health jurisdictions.

Dr. Ivey: The grant seeks to both create courses and train students but it is also tied to placing a certain number of trained students into experiential learning settings. Given I have also worked at a local health jurisdiction for many years, my goal has been to move these workers to as many of our California public health agencies (county and city) as possible.

EpiMonitor: What kind of public health projects are current students engaged in? 

Dr. Ivey: Students have worked either in PH agencies, non-profits, or public health/health settings so far. My own group has been working on mapping of public health issues (using GIS software) including air pollution data, helping on evaluation of public health programs, working in private companies developing new ways to exchange health information, and analyzing public health data in different settings.

Juliet Munyambanza: I was part of a group that conducted a point-of-care ultrasound feasibility study in maternal and child health in rural Uganda using Qualtrics Survey software. The aim was to identify a community health issue and apply technology in a low resource setting. The health issue here was lack of access to diagnostics tools, namely, ultrasound enhancing maternal and child health outcomes, and the solution was the use of portable point-of-care ultrasound technology, which is cheaper than regular ultrasound machines and can be used at the point of service. The topic was influenced by my interest in maternal and child health in developing countries and the solution was influenced by my groupmate's expertise in ultrasound technology.

In terms of GIS projects, I worked with a group to create a dashboard showing Sexually Transmitted Infections—Chlamydia, Syphilis, HIV and Gonorrhea cases in California by County. Currently, I am creating a story map showing infant mortality rates by county in the state of Mississippi. 

Brenda Nash: Programs I participated in included addressing mental health challenges in young adults, maternal and child health in Uganda, and using GIS to visualize COVID data in the San Benito Dept of Public Health.

EpiMonitor: What types of long-term opportunities could graduates be positioned for when they exit the program? 

Dr. Ivey: We hope many of these students will be excited to be placed into wonderful public health departments around our state, where there are great needs. However, these skills can cross many settings so we believe some students might choose to work at tech companies or other private companies or in non-profits or community-based organizations who also have data needs.

EpiMonitor [to students from the program]: After your experience in the PHIT program, what types of long-term opportunities are you interested in? Or how do you plan to use your PHIT coursework/experience in the future?

Juliet: I plan to pursue a career such as data analyst, health informatics analyst, and research-related roles, using technology such as GIS to solve public health challenges. My favorite part of the program is the way PHIT skills can be applied in different fields, not just in public health. I feel well equipped to tackle various challenges that require skills in technology such as GIS, data analysis, project management, programming, etc.

Brenda: Long-term opportunities that I would be interested in continuing to pursue are public health informatics and the application of GIS and spatial analysis for health equity.  

EpiMonitor: What are some of your hopes for the future of the program?

Dr. Ivey: We are hoping for an additional community college level course that can better attract diverse and low-income students who may start at community colleges and not necessarily have thought about either public health or informatics but once exposed may become more interested in transferring to 4-year schools and even go on for master's level training. That was the pipeline we hoped for. And right now we hope we can successfully place 700 students into internships around the state!   ■

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