"......the information sources used to meet a public health information need can be universally described as resources that are: vetted; high quality; generated by an authoritative content source; verifiable by a trusted source; up to date and known to be regularly updated; convenient; and accessible [16] and [17]. S"

from the UI 20140308hb:

Volume 40, Issue 4, August 2007, Pages 410–421

Public Health Informatics

Understanding the information needs of public health practitioners: A literature review to inform design of an interactive digital knowledge management system

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2006.12.008

Revere et al. report in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics that public health professionals need information sources that are ""......the information sources used to meet a public health information need can be universally described as resources that are: vetted; high quality; generated by an authoritative content source; verifiable by a trusted source; up to date and known to be regularly updated; convenient; and accessible [16] and [17]. S" " (Revere et al, 2007).

Humans need scientific literacy, an understanding and ability and will to see and detect hidden links between causes and effects to understand how to prevent the preventable.....instead of causing harm.......even if those links, causes and consequences are not easy, cheap, quick, obvious, immediate or everyday as clinical medicine.

But in a modern world filled with many distractions and demands on each self day to day, few of us have the opportunity or even luxury of thinking about the thousands and millions of links between inalienable causes and consequences, actions and reactions..........positive actions that cause positive reactions slowly to lift all up to produce abundance, prosperity, blessings for all to share..............negative actions that suck all down easy, cheap, quick.

So it is not surprising that Revere et al discovered that public health information is poorly documented or indexed in our national and global systems. I have discovered that MEDLINE and the International Classifications of Diseases (ICD-CM-9) focused mostly on clinical diagnoses and injuries............and that more mysterious and subclinical conditions and long-term effects of toxins were poorly classified or omitted or misdiagnosed.....without differentials.

Most physicians and medical schools focus on clinical training without the opportunities to see the bigger pictures that link industrial toxics to health of an entire community. So when the Bush-Cheney White House engineered an exemption of the fracking industry from the Clean Water Act in 2005, our medical communities were unprepared to diagnose the enormous range of qualities and quanties of symptoms and not-yet-named diseases/illnesses/injuries/epidemiological crises caused by the oil and gas industries as America continues to destroy entire continental aquifers of drinking water with toxic contamination, earthquakes, sinkholes and other catastrophes for America that the insurance industry can't afford.

But the oil and gas industry has conspired to block the development of renewable energy such as solar and wind power infrastructure and a "smart grid" to power America.....eve n though solar energy could supply all energy needs on earth forever.

This is very political and efforts to improve health and lives of Americans and many around the globe need to focus on our US Congress in D.C. where the oil and gas and other cash-driven industries that threaten public health have bought too many "public representatives" so that they should be called "private CEO representatives", instead.

But in a modern world governed by deadly cashflow floods, 30-second and me-myself-I glamour spots in the midst of a cash-driven media and information torque machine for political and economic gain for the private self.....it's very difficult....and even dangerous for private individuals and groups to reach out for and to obtain relevant, critical information and resources to shape a more positive future for our own children.

We've all heard of the McCarthy era that labeled many as "unamerican" in the 1950s and the attempts to stigmatize those who step out of a dictated mold

The importance of this has become critical as numerous so-called "public representatives" in our U.S. Congress have clearly demonstrated both a 1) refusal to act to protect public health of millions from threats caused by humans 2) denying the links between causes and consequences as clearly documented by millions of scientists through decades for more than 97% accuracy, 3) substituting "religious" dogma for scientific fact that supports actions by privatized and cash-driven corporporations that need those "public representatives" to reject the science and fill in with religious dogma for those private CEOs to profit.....at taxpayer expense...and 4) accepting bribes from cash-driven CEOs and corporations to push for regulations that enable private corporations to 5) destroy public health and public futures....even of their own children irreversibly.....at taxpayer expense......

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "...................................when a privatized force becomes stronger than the government its self......this is 'fascism'"

But our current medical system focuses instead, primarily on the cash-driven, short-term, private, obvious, clinical front because clinical medicine is easier, cheaper and quicker and more "profitable" for individual, private physicians and medical staff and owners to understand and treat. Some even confine their private selves in totalitarian comfort and convenience to avoid the responsibility that all share to invest in our world to make it a better place for our selves and our children now and generations from now.

Unfortunately, our leaders have their ability to judge processes, functions, structures and outcomes of a system, cell or self or nation or globe as more than simple, mechanical, artificial counts of metal coins, as numbers of homogenous and desttructive quantities of cash that crush life and land and function......and abilities and will to survive.

We need our leaders to stand up and speak out for the ability of our world to survive, to function, to produce critical flows to keep each alive day to day and minute to minute......to balance quantity of numbers with quality of logic.....to balance cashflow with nature's uncountable abilities to produce life and land, health, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" of any definition. Perhaps "the best things in life are free" because they're impossible to count in mechanical, artificial assembly lines of human cash.

I look at my world as a very dynamic and functional being, layer on layer, cell to self to globe, each interacting with the other, each inalienable......critical flows of air, O2, water, soil that grow food and shelter to keep each alive day to day and minute to minute.

But some limit their vision to the private, immediate, obvious, everday controlled by cashflow that so many call "economy"....

The word root, "eco-" as in "eco+nomic" as in "number" as in "quaNtity" and as in "eco+logic" as in "logic" and "link" and "intelLIGent" means "house" or "oikos" in Greek....but not every house nurtures those within. Some houses hurt and destroy those within. Humans need nature's hidden genetic potentials for tiny seeds, seedlings, soils to grow upwards toward light enough to produce abundance of earth enough to share.

But some just don't get it and assume erroneously that cashflow floods means "riches" and "wealth".....but they are wrong scientificially, mathematically, economically, morally.

Humans need nature to produce ecological abundance to produce the critical flows to keep humans alive and happy enough to count as economic "prosperity".....

Ironically, though, our cash-driven system counts mechanically, artificially, crushing fragile genetic organisms and living systems that we need to produce the critical flows that keep us alive day to day and minute to minute......crushing to divide to count and counting to divide to crush the competition... our cash-driven "business model" that some call "capitalist" or "capitalism"....

But a real capitalist does not destroy the natural capital that produces the critical flows that keep each alive day to day and minute to minute.

Ironically, our cash-driven "economy" of homogenous cash counts the most critical flows of nature for life the least and the least critical the most.....

Ironically, cash counts the most critical and hidden flow for humans the least, O2....photosynthetic oxygen the least.....even though humans die within minutes without O2....

Ironically, cash counts the next most critical and hidden flow for humans the next least, water as H2O the next least............even though humans die within days without H2O...

Ironically, cash counts the next most critical and hidden flow for humans, rich organic topsoil production and soilmakers the next least............soil that grows food for us to eat......even though humans die within months without food....

Our ancient human cash systems of metal coins, synthetic symbols and exchanges in our private, obvious, short-term worlds has built great cities and civilizations.....but destroys the amazing wonders and mysteries of nature's hidden genetic potentials and life and land that grow abundance for All 100% to share....even with the 1%.

We need a more logical economic system, an "ecological economy" that counts more than cash....more than cashflow floods of artificial human cities...........that count and value the invaluable of nature's amazing genius that keeps all alive day to day and minute to minute.

But our human cash systems of artificial, mechanical, industrial counts crush these critical flows and patterns of life and land that connect all, that produce the critical flows that nurture all living organisms and systems of life and land to enable all to function and produce usable, positive outcomes enough to grow upwards toward light of the sun.

But our cash-driven human "economy" counts little more than human cash. Numerous religions of the world warn humans to count more than cash....but few listen.

And articles by Revere and others have discovered that indeed, the field of public health information is complicated, complex, difficult to understand and document logically enough to access meaningful information for investing in public health in a timely manner.

Public infrastructure foundations are more complex, more difficult to understand, more difficult to manage, more difficult to govern, more difficult to document and more difficult to heal.

Our current systems in the US in the 21st century, our urban system, medical system, political system, financial system and systems all focus primarily on the immediate 30 seconds, orgasm, obvious, short-term, private and everyday of individual persons and private points of view.........making a very diverse and complicated public domain to manage....difficult for public health professionals and researchers. Some have the vision and wisdom to see past tha privatized, immediate, obvious sphere that speeds through public spaces carelessly.....such as those interested in justice and those interested in investing in a better world for their children now and generations from now.

People who have learned to contact the wonders of nature and the divine of a religion and mature adults learn and understand that humans need to reach beyond only one private self to succeed in a complex world.

But many have learned erroneously from a very young age that privatizedcash profits justify all.

Unfortunately, our cities have sprawled out from their cores to consume and destroy many diverse and rich agricultural lands, forests, virgin ecosystems, watersheds, oceans, climates that hold the secrets to understanding nature's many fragile but critical secrets that hold our fragile web for all life intact.

Unfotunately, few have had the privilege and opportunities to reach out beyond their private, immediate, obvious, electronically-controlled, easy, cheap, quick and cash-driven worlds to explore the more complex worlds and miracles of nature.....many trapped in confines of urban walls and barriers.

If we greened our cities.....if we brought the green producers of nature into our urban cities to produce the critical flows for the many humans who need those critical flows such as O2, H2O, soil, food, shelter.....and green systems to clean up human messes.....then we could reverse many of the negatives that artificial public health problems and costs in urban centers that industrialization and combustion of an Industrial Revolution of the last 150 years have caused in the last 150 years:

Public health is more complex, bigger, more public, more long-term....and costs all more time and money to build the infrastructure to enable the many to produce a more positive future for their children.

But so many in public office limit their vision by the obvious, immediate, private everyday urban walls that confine so many in our cities.

References:

per article by Revere et al: "Understanding the information needs of public health practitiioners: a literature review to inform.." (Revere et al, 2007) and Holly's comments

Public Health Information Management

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Economy. Beyond GDP: The Geological Society

Friday, March 7, 2014

Public Health Informatics (1995) PDF

Summary of needs for public health information:

Understanding the information needs of public health practitioners: A literature review to inform design of an interactive digital knowledge management system

Public Health Information needs:

Information needs of public health practitioners: a review of the literature Ford 2012 Health Information & Libraries Journal Wiley Online Library

Information needs of public health practitioners: a review of the literature Ford 2012 Health Information & Libraries Journal Wiley Online Library