Resilience Informatics in Public Health: Qualitative Analysis of Conference Proceedings.

Resilience Informatics in Public Health: Qualitative Analysis of Conference Proceedings.

Publication date: Jan 16, 2025

In recent years, public health has confronted 2 formidable challenges: the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the enduring threat of climate change. The convergence of these crises underscores the urgent need for resilient solutions. Resilience informatics (RI), an emerging discipline at the intersection of informatics and public health, leverages real-time data integration from health systems, environmental monitoring, and technological tools to develop adaptive responses to multifaceted crises. It offers promising avenues for mitigating and adapting to these challenges by proactively identifying vulnerabilities and fostering adaptive capacity in public health systems. Addressing critical questions regarding target audiences, privacy concerns, and scalability is paramount to fostering resilience in the face of evolving health threats. The University of Arizona held a workshop, titled Resilience Informatics in Public Health, in November 2023 to serve as a pivotal forum for advancing these discussions and catalyzing collaborative efforts within the field. This paper aims to present a qualitative thematic analysis of the findings from this workshop. A purposive sampling strategy was used to invite 40 experts by email from diverse fields, including public health, medicine, weather services, informatics, environmental science, and resilience, to participate in the workshop. The event featured presentations from key experts, followed by group discussions facilitated by experts. The attendees engaged in collaborative reflection and discussion on predetermined questions. Discussions were systematically recorded by University of Arizona students, and qualitative analysis was conducted. A detailed thematic analysis was performed using an inductive approach, supported by MAXQDA software to manage and organize data. Two independent researchers coded the transcripts; discrepancies in coding were resolved through consensus, ensuring a rigorous synthesis of the findings. The workshop hosted 27 experts at the University of Arizona, 21 (78%) of whom were from public health-related fields. Of these 27 experts, 8 (30%) were from the field of resilience. In addition, participants from governmental agencies, American Indian groups, weather services, and a mobile health organization attended. Qualitative analysis identified major themes, including the potential of RI tools, threats to resilience (eg, health care access, infrastructure, and climate change), challenges with RI tools (eg, usability, funding, and real-time response), and standards for RI tools (eg, technological, logistical, and sociological). The attendees emphasized the importance of equitable access, community engagement, and iterative development in RI projects. The RI workshop emphasized the necessity for accessible, user-friendly tools bridging technical knowledge and community needs. The workshop’s conclusions provide a road map for future public health resilience, highlighting the need for scalable, culturally sensitive, community-driven interventions. Future directions include focused discussions to yield concrete outputs such as implementation guidelines and tool designs, reshaping public health strategies in the face of emerging threats.

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Concepts Keywords
Arizona AI
Email artificial intelligence
Environmental Climate Change
Future Congresses as Topic
Pandemic COVID-19
Humans
informatics
mobile phone
Pandemics
Public Health
public health
Qualitative Research
resilience
Resilience, Psychological

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19 pandemic
disease MESH privacy
drug DRUGBANK Methylphenidate
drug DRUGBANK Honey
disease MESH infectious disease
pathway REACTOME Infectious disease
drug DRUGBANK Medical air
disease MESH infection
disease MESH malnutrition
disease MESH emergency
disease IDO process
pathway REACTOME Translation
disease MESH vector borne diseases
disease IDO intervention
disease MESH chronic illnesses
disease IDO role
drug DRUGBANK Water
disease MESH uncertainty
disease MESH extreme heat
disease MESH syndrome
drug DRUGBANK Fentanyl
drug DRUGBANK Nonoxynol-9
disease MESH compassion fatigue
drug DRUGBANK Spinosad
drug DRUGBANK Huperzine B
drug DRUGBANK Methionine
disease MESH education level
drug DRUGBANK Guanosine
disease MESH Long COVID
disease MESH complications
disease MESH sarcopenia
disease MESH ovarian cancer
drug DRUGBANK Coenzyme M
pathway REACTOME Reproduction

Original Article

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