Now more than ever,
the nation’s local public health officials are the first line of
defense against a host of threats to the welfare of our communities.
Tracking incidents of infectious disease at the community level is an essential component of
the federal government’s homeland security initiative, as evidenced by the development of Public Health Information Network (PHIN) standards by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The evolving PHIN standards require local and state agencies to deploy state-of-the-art IT components that meet the CDC’s interoperability requirements and prepares for the future of public and private health.
