The near-term future for child health information systems

The developmental process in children offers an opportunity to influence their health and well-being as adults. The information infrastructure of the future needs to support the multiple partners responsible for providing elements of the health protection and health care of children. In this partnership, public health plays simultaneously a supportive role and a leadership role. Five tasks need to guide near-term information systems thinking with respect to establishing a basis for building electronic linkages among various child health programs. First, the nation's vital records system must be reengineered to ensure that this key information asset can be integrated into other child health information systems. Second, through an appropriate governance structure, the key stakeholders in child health should endorse standards and requirements that define a longitudinal health record for children. Third, public health agencies should develop a thorough business case/value proposition that drives mutually developed and mutually endorsed requirements for the integration of presently fragmented systems. Fourth, public health should take the lead in ensuring that parents have convenient access to information that can support the coordination of their child's care and development. And fifth, provider groups and public health agencies should join research networks to study how information supports positive changes to children's health.