*** please don’t just agree with post but add more that can be discussed on the discussion board***

       Interprofessional collaborative practice along with public health informatics are essential components for the advancement of environmental health. Monitoring health in order to improve public health practice is dependent upon public health information technology that is reliable and accurate. It is beneficial for environmental health agencies to integrate data from diverse sources  not only between programs and divisions within their own departments, but also with other agencies within the state, region, and nation. Data from diverse sources is useful for addressing emerging health problems, educating the public on specific environmental hazards, and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions (Coleman & Delea, 2013). 

       Interprofessional collaborative practice is valuable to the environmental health field because it provides a broader view of an issue due to perspectives of various disciplines. Public health informatics can assist communication between professionals and overcomes the traditional limitations of interprofessional work and its need for real-time interactions. It ensures that practitioners can communicate and collaborate to effectively deliver health care and supports interaction among various locations. The constructs of interprofessional collaboration and informatics integrate networks that combine people with processes, education, evidence, and policy (Kuziemsky & Reeves, 2012). 

       Interprofessional teams are recommended by the World Health Organization and the National Academy of Medicine. Interprofessional teams operate in health care facilities, academic institutions, and community or public health settings and are effective because they draw on diverse expertise to address complex problems. Specifically, health informaticians can contribute to environmental health since they are qualified to handle both electronic health records and larger health care data sets to answer questions, support care delivery, and improve quality. Informaticians develop methodologies to advance team research that facilitates interprofessional collaboration and develop standards and terminologies to support system interoperability (Holden et al., 2018). 

References

Coleman, E. W., & Delea, K. C. (2013). The use of public health informatics to improve environmental health practice. Journal of Environmental Health,

       76(5), 44-45.

Holden, R. J., Binkheder, S., Patel, J., & Viernes, S. (2018). Best Practices for Health Informatician Involvement in Interprofessional Health Care Teams.

       Applied clinical informatics, 9(1), 141–148. 

Kuziemsky, C., & Reeves, S. (2012). The intersection of informatics and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 26(6), 437-

       439. doi:10.3109/13561820.2012.728380

Classmate 2: Ruthza: Hello Professor and Class,

Interprofessional collaboration involves two or more professional disciplines working together towards one goal. Healthcare is one of the most important aspects of society which relies on effective interprofessional collaboration to achieve quality results. For example, in a hospital setting, there are doctors with different specialties, social workers or case workers, nurses, chaplains and other professionals that work together to provide a wholistic approach to healthcare delivery. Public health informatics involve the use of "information technology to monitor, evaluate and improve the delivery of health" (Coleman & Delea, 2013).  Informatics is a broad science that covers the disciplines of "information science, decision science and organizational theory" (Kuziemsky & Reeves, 2012), thus not only does informatics provide data needed for research but also provides tools needed to critically analyze data, intuitively derive possible solutions and scenarios and their possible effects, which will help in making important clinical decisions.

In making important public health decisions and changes, the availability of data for research is a very important factor. While obtaining this data can be arduous, informatics makes it quite possible and as easy as just a click of a button. Information needed from research, previous surveys and researches, their results, etc are all available on the internet and very easily accessible by users. This reduces the time needed to carry out research on a particular health problem. Informatics also makes it possible for public health researchers to create trends, track disease outbreaks and analyze the progression of disease. One of the most important function of public health is to educate the public on health matters and provide informaton about safe health practices. Informatics makes this possible through the provision of educational materials via electronic media and making it easily accessible to the public.

Reference:

Coleman, E. W., & Delea, K. C. (2013). The use of public health informatics to improve environmental health practice. Journal of environmental health, 76(5), 44–45.

Hankemeier, D., & Manspeaker, S. A. (2018). Perceptions of Interprofessional and Collaborative Practice in Collegiate Athletic Trainers. Journal of athletic training, 53(7), 703–708. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-308-17

Kuziemsky, C., & Reeves, S. (2012). The intersection of informatics and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 26(6), 437-439. doi:10.3109/13561820.2012.728380