Connecting public health IT systems with enacted work: report of an ethnographic study

As part of a larger project to improve information transfer within public health settings, we studied the information workflow associated with communicable disease (CD) activities in a local health department. As part of that study we examined a newly adopted online system used for reporting CD data to the state department of public health. An information workflow analysis was performed using the ethnographic methods of interviews and observations. In addition to providing a detailed description of the context of CD reporting activities in a local health department, our study uncovered a mismatch between the newly piloted electronic reporting system and the CD work as enacted by health department personnel.