Data communication and sharing of five level network of Public Health Information System, i.e. nation, province, district (city), county, and town, as far as to the countryside level were described, and how to apply the three solutions, i.e. Access VPN, Intranet VPN, and Extranet VPN of VPN technique to achieve the appropriation of the public network was also presented.
China ; Computer Communication Networks/*organization & administration ; Public Health Informatics/*methods ; User-Computer Interface

OBJECTIVES: This article reviews an evaluation vector model driven from a participatory action research leveraging a collective inquiry system named SMILE (Stanford Mobile Inquiry-based Learning Environment). METHODS: SMILE has been implemented in a diverse set of collective inquiry generation and analysis scenarios including community health care-specific professional development sessions and community-based participatory action research projects. In each scenario, participants are given opportunities to construct inquiries around physical and emotional health-related phenomena in their own community. RESULTS: Participants formulated inquiries as well as potential clinical treatments and hypothetical scenarios to address health concerns or clarify misunderstandings or misdiagnoses often found in their community practices. From medical universities to rural village health promotion organizations, all participatory inquiries and potential solutions can be collected and analyzed. The inquiry and solution sets represent an evaluation vector which helps educators better understand community health issues at a much deeper level. CONCLUSIONS: SMILE helps collect problems that are most important and central to their community health concerns. The evaluation vector, consisting participatory and collective inquiries and potential solutions, helps the researchers assess the participants' level of understanding on issues around health concerns and practices while helping the community adequately formulate follow-up action plans. The method used in SMILE requires much further enhancement with machine learning and advanced data visualization.
Community-Based Participatory Research ; Diagnostic Errors ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Promotion ; Health Services Research* ; Learning* ; Machine Learning ; Methods ; Public Health ; Public Health Informatics ; Social Learning ; Telemedicine

Effective communicable disease surveillance systems are the basis of the national disease prevention and control. Following the increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases since late 1990s, the Korean government has strived to enhance surveillance and response system. Since 2000, sentinel surveillance, such as influenza sentinel surveillance, pediatric sentinel surveillance, school-based sentinel surveillance and ophthalmological sentinel surveillance, was introduced to improve the surveillance activities. Electronic reporting system was developed in 2000, enabling the establishment of national database of reported cases. Disweb, a portal for sharing communicable disease information with the public and health care workers, was developed. In general, the survey results on usefulness and attributes of the system, such as simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, timeliness, and representa-tiveness, received relatively high recognition. Compared to the number of paid cases of national health insurance, reported cases by national notifiable disease surveillance system, and various sentinel surveillance system, the result of the correlation analysis was high. According to the research project conducted by KCDC, the reporting rate of physicians in 2004 has also greatly improved, compared with that in 1990s. However, continuous efforts are needed to further improve the communicable disease surveillance system. Awareness of physicians on communicable disease surveillance system must be improved by conducting education and information campaigns on a continuous basis. We should also devise means for efficient use of various administrative data including cause of death statistics and health insurance. In addition, efficiency of the system must be improved by linking data from various surveillance system.
Communicable Diseases/*epidemiology ; Communication ; Disease Notification/methods ; Disease Outbreaks ; Humans ; Korea ; Public Health Informatics/organization & administration ; *Sentinel Surveillance

Due to heightened concerns regarding possible bioterrorist attacks, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention introduced syndromic surveillance systems, which have been run by emergency departments in hospitals throughout Korea since 2002. These systems are designed to identify illness clusters before diagnoses are confirmed and reported to public health agencies, to mobilize a rapid response, and thereby to reduce morbidity and mortality. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention performed drop-in syndromic surveillance successfully during the World Cup Football Games in 2002, the Universiad games in 2004, and the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in 2005. In addition, sustainable syndromic surveillance system involving the collaborative efforts of 125 sentinel hospitals has been in operation nationwide since 2002. Because active data collection can bias decisions a physician makes, there is a need to generate an automatic and passive data collection system. Therefore, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to establish computerized automatic data collection systems in the near future. These systems will be used not only for the early detection of bioterrorism but also for more effective public health responses to disease.
*Bioterrorism ; Disaster Planning/organization & administration ; Disease Notification/*methods ; Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control ; Emergency Service, Hospital/*organization & administration ; Humans ; Korea ; Public Health Informatics/*organization & administration ; *Sentinel Surveillance ; Syndrome

OBJECTIVETo understand the impact of effective interaction between public and media on the prevention and control of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

METHODSBased on the theory of field epidemiology, the traditional and modern technologies were brought forward. In the late period of SARS epidemic, investigation on knowledge, attitude and practice on SARS prevention and control among general population was conducted.

RESULTSDuring the 3 month period of SARS epidemic in Shenzhen, techniques of the "E-health and public health informatics" as an emerging fields were used to focus on population to eventually improve the health of entire population. Methods as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, printing and distribution of specific materials on SARS were included, and hotlines of telephone and mobile phone, web-based sites, electronic screening advertisements, and consultation or forum for the public etc. were used. Among 3405 subjects interviewed, more than 95% gave right answers on the SARS related questions. Most of them held the optimistic and scientific attitude. 80% of the population had taken the measures as recommended. 82.4% of the citizens were happy about the local government's action and 93.8% thought hospitals and healthcare workers should be respected and honored.

CONCLUSIONDealing with the urgent public health problems and emerging infectious diseases outbreak, epidemiologists need to keep good relations with media, and making use of modern electronic technologies to communicate with the public.

Adolescent ; Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Disease Outbreaks ; Female ; Health Education ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Infection Control ; methods ; Information Dissemination ; methods ; Male ; Mass Media ; Middle Aged ; Public Health Informatics ; trends ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; epidemiology ; prevention & control