Informatics enables public health surveillance

Over the past decade, the world has radically changed. New advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) connect the world in ways never imagined. Public health informatics (PHI) leveraged for public health surveillance (PHS), can enable, enhance, and empower essential PHS functions (i.e., detection, reporting, confirmation, analyses, feedback, response). However, the tail doesn't wag the dog; as such, ICT cannot (should not) drive public health surveillance strengthening. Rather, ICT can serve PHS to more effectively empower core functions. In this review, we explore promising ICT trends for prevention, detection, and response, laboratory reporting, push notification, analytics, predictive surveillance, and using new data sources, while recognizing that it is the people, politics, and policies that most challenge progress for implementation of solutions.