Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States

Objectives To survey advances in public health and epidemiology informatics over the past three years. Methods We conducted a review of English-language research works conducted in the domain of public health informatics (PHI), and published in MEDLINE between January 2012 and December 2014, where information and communication technology (ICT) was a primary subject, or a main component of the study methodology. Selected articles were synthesized using a thematic analysis using the Essential Services of Public Health as a typology. Results Based on themes that emerged, we organized the advances into a model where applications that support the Essential Services are, in turn, supported by a socio-technical infrastructure that relies on government policies and ethical principles. That infrastructure, in turn, depends upon education and training of the public health workforce, development that creates novel or adapts existing infrastructure, and research that evaluates the success of the infrastructure. Finally, the persistence and growth of infrastructure depends on financial sustainability. Conclusions Public health informatics is a field that is growing in breadth, depth, and complexity. Several Essential Services have benefited from informatics, notably, “Monitor Health,” “Diagnose & Investigate,” and “Evaluate.” Yet many Essential Services still have not yet benefited from advances such as maturing electronic health record systems, interoperability amongst health information systems, analytics for population health management, use of social media among consumers, and educational certification in clinical informatics. There is much work to be done to further advance the science of PHI as well as its impact on public health practice

Urban Big Data and Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities

Cities are perhaps one of the most challenging and yet enabling arenas for sustainable development goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the need to monitor each goal through objective targets and indicators based on common denominators in the ability of countries to collect and maintain relevant standardized data. While this approach is aimed at harmonizing the SDGs at the national level, it presents unique challenges and opportunities for the development of innovative urban-level metrics through big data innovations. In this article, we make the case for advancing more innovative targets and indicators relevant to the SDGs through the emergence of urban big data. We believe that urban policy-makers are faced with unique opportunities to develop, experiment, and advance big data practices relevant to sustainable development. This can be achieved by situating the application of big data innovations through developing mayoral institutions for the governance of urban big data, advancing the culture and common skill sets for applying urban big data, and investing in specialized research and education programs

The resilience of embodied energy networks: a critical dimension for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access, renewables and efficiency have been identified as targets in the field of energy under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Resilience is also a critical dimension that needs to be considered in moving towards sustainable energy. Diversification of direct energy suppliers has been the conventional recourse for achieving energy security. In consideration of the increasingly globalized nature of trade, energy and supply chain networks, however, this approach would be insufficient for addressing the resilience of energy supplies to potential environmental, economic and social shocks and disruptions. In this paper we investigate countries' energy resilience by quantifying diversity in suppliers of both direct and embodied energy and examine how selections of indirect energy supplies can affect the resilience of the entire embodied-energy trade network. We find that the geographical diversity of embodied energy imports is much greater than that of direct energy imports, and there are considerable variations across countries in the diversification of embodied energy imports. This suggests a possible strategy for countries that depend heavily on a few neighbors for their direct energy imports to diversify their supply chain globally in order to benefit from larger diversity of embodied energy supplies, thereby strengthening the energy resilience of their economies

Banking of human tissue for biomonitoring and exposure assessment: utility for environmental epidemiology and surveillance.

Human tissue banking could provide a tool to address a number of public health concerns. We can potentially use it to monitor trends in human exposures, serve as an early warning system for new environmental exposures, assess low-level exposures around hazardous waste and other point sources of pollutants, evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory programs, and study etiologies of diseases (e.g., childhood cancer and birth defects) that are likely to be related to the environment. This article discusses opportunities to establish human tissue banks in connection with pre-existing public health surveillance programs for cancer and adverse reproductive outcomes. This is a cost-effective way to conduct surveillance and enhances the ability to carry out epidemiologic studies. The article also discusses ethical issues that are particularly important for public health practice. One is the issue of risk communication and the need to explain risks in a way that provides people with the information they need to determine appropriate action on the individual and community levels. Second is the issue of environmental justice. We recommend early involvement of communities that are likely to be involved in tissue-banking projects and full explanation of individual and group social risks from their participation

An insight into the implementation of land use right transfer policy in China: a case study in the City of Zhangye

Land use right transfer (LURT) has been viewed to have significant potential in advancing farmland management in China. However, the implementation of LURT policy and more specifically its effects on the local society and economy is an under-researched area. This paper provides insights into the implementation of LURT carried out in the City of Zhangye, Gansu Province. Eight villages were visited for this study and data were gathered through key informant interviews, statistical datasets and official legal documents. Our results reveal the socio-economic performance and complicated influence of LURT policy in the region. The promotion of farmers' income was confirmed in some villages and more farmers have been involved into non-agricultural sectors. However, not all farmers were satisfied with their income and contract management was somehow unsatisfying. For future improvement, policy-makers need to better tackle the ambiguous public awareness and poor management of LURT contracts

Decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth on city level: The Case Study of Chongqing in China

As cities represent the microcosms of global environmental change, it is very important for the global sustainable development by decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth on city level. In this paper, the municipality of Chongqing in China is employed as a case to show whether the decoupling of environmental pressures from economic growth has occurred in cities undergoing rapid economic growth; what is the level of decoupling; and what causes the observed degree of decoupling. Results show the following. (1) During the period of 1999–2010, decoupling from economic growth has been absolute for the emissions of SO2, soot, and waste water, while it has been relative for total energy consumption, emissions of CO2 and solid waste. (2) Compared with the period 2000–2005, decoupling level improved for all the six environmental pressures in the period 2005–2010. (3) Compared with China and other three municipalities of China, the overall decoupling level of Chongqing is above China’s average while below those of Beijing and Shanghai. (4) During the period 1999–2000, technological change was the dominate factor for decoupling Chongqing’s environmental pressure from economic growth, as it contributed 131.4%, 134.6%, 99.9%, 97.7%, 104.5% and 54.9% to the decoupling of total energy consumption, emissions of CO2, SO2, soot, waste water and solid waste, respectively; while economic structural change had very tiny effect to the decoupling of emissions of soot and SO2, and it even had negative effect to that of total energy consumption, and emissions of CO2 and waste water. Based on the above observations, we explain the difference in decoupling levels for different environmental pressures and suggest approaches for policy-makers on further promoting decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth

Predicting Risk of Potentially Preventable Hospitalization in Older Adults with Dementia

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151826/1/jgs16030_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151826/2/jgs16030.pd

Co-benefits and trade-offs of environmental pressures: A case study of Zhejiang’s socio-economic evolution

Our societies are continuously grappling with how to achieve rapid economic growth while minimizing the challenges of environmental sustainability. In this avenue, numerous studies have contributed towards investigating socio-economic factors and developing policies targeting environmental pressures (EPs). While previous studies have tended to focus on the individual driving forces of EPs, the consideration of the co-benefits and trade-offs among different EPs and policies have been considerably overlooked. In China, previous studies have mostly engaged these issues at the national level and have overlooked the regional socio-economic characteristics – this presents a mismatch between regional policy applications and average national level research findings. Towards this end, this study examines the co-benefits and trade-offs of eight EPs in Zhejiang during the 2007–2015 period. Our findings revealed strict co-benefits in reductions of all eight EPs due to intensity changes as well as trade-offs due to changes in final demand structure and final demand composition. Sectoral results show that only the Non-Ferrous Metal Ores sector has strict co-benefits among all EPs from the production perspective, while eight sectors have strict co-benefits from the consumption perspective mainly including the Mining and Washing of Coal, Ferrous Metal Ores, Electric Power and Heat Power sectors. Our findings suggest important policy implications associated with utilizing co-benefits and avoiding trade-offs for EP mitigation: making full use of all driving forces, strengthening intersectoral coordination, and establishing a joint evaluation mechanism among different sectors

What causes spatial carbon inequality? Evidence from China’s Yangtze River economic Belt

Detecting spatial carbon inequality is critical to achieving regional emission reduction targets from the perspectives of ensuring equality and efficiency. While previous studies have measured spatial carbon inequality and identified its drivers, few studies have explored these drivers at a sectorial level. Taking China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as a case study example, this study explores the drivers of spatial carbon inequality at the sectoral level and reveals the following key points. (1) The regional heterogeneity in CO₂ emissions driven by economic factors have increased from 2002 to 2012. (2) The wide spatial differences in CO₂ emissions are driven by per capita final demand, production structure, and final demand structure. (3) Driven by emission intensity, the production structure, and the final demand structure effects, the Electricity and heat production and supply, Smelting and pressing of metals, and Nonmetal mineral products have become the most critical sectors aggravating the spatial carbon inequality. (4) Driven by the production structure and final demand structure, most of the middle and lower reaches of the YREB emit more CO₂ in the aforementioned sectors. Our findings support the implementation of coordinated emission reduction plans in the YREB region