PRESIDENT’S & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S Q&A
As public health laboratories enter this
new era of data exchange, how can they
convey to state information technology
(IT) officials the importance of IT tools
and specialized support?
Kubin: I think some of the success we’ve
had traces back to the fact that our IT
applications staff have been embedded in
the lab. They sit with us and engage with
our laboratorians daily. They’ve gone into
our testing areas, seen our equipment and
watched our processes. They understand
how important that testing is. That’s the
message we need to get out to IT. If the
system goes down, it’s not just “Oh, it’s a
little bit of delay you’re not going to get
your email.” They have to understand that
a delay could have a serious impact on
someone’s life. It could have life-or-death
consequences.
Becker: Laboratory directors need to go all
out to meet, understand and partner with
their jurisdiction’s IT system staff. The
centralized IT function is not generally
embraced, but there are instances where
I’ve seen laboratory directors establish
and maintain strong relationships for
the benefit of the laboratory. It takes hard
work but it can be done. It’s a matter of
understanding the needs of both parties—
not just one. And friends, centralized IT is
here to stay, it’s not a passing fad so really,
what choice do we have but to embrace,
convince, advocate, and build that very
important relationship.
Kubin: I’ve been fortunate to participate
in meetings with upper level IT
management in applications development
and IT operations. This gives me time to
talk with them one-on-one to help them
understand the mission of the laboratory.
For example, if a public health response is
in the news, I say “We did testing for that”
in the IT meeting. The IT staff respond,
“Really? You guys test for that?” Now
they’re starting to kind of click and put
the pieces together. They go on, “Oh wow,
our lab is doing stuff that’s on the news.”
Then you bring them in a bit more as
you tell them about the stuff that’s not in
the news, and they’re engaged. They say,
“Wow! That’s really cool!” and they feel
that they’re in the know.
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
Becker: IT staff are providing solutions
that help the public, but they don’t get
credit for it because they’re not brought
into the work that deeply. Looking at it
from both parties’ perspective and making
it less transactional is good. Instead of “I
need this done,” it becomes “We have this
public health problem to solve, so how are
we going to work together to accomplish
it?
Kubin: There’s plenty of APHL members
who have best practices to share on
establishing these good relationships.
How can the AIMS platform support
these new data-based relationships?
Becker: AIMS supports the entire public
health enterprise and not only public
health laboratories. I’ve been talking with
our APHL committees about AIMS and
explaining that every state is connected
to the platform in one way or another. But
no one knows its full capabilities, so we
will be sharing this information over the
next six months as APHL looks at ways to
bring more of these capabilities into play.
I’ve been talking with our
APHL committees about AIMS
and explaining that every state is
connected to the platform in one
way or another.”
Scott Becker, Executive Director, APHL
Kubin: Laboratory staff may not always
know what they contribute or how they
use AIMS.
Becker: Clearly APHL has more work to
do to get the word out. We’re very excited
about AIMS initiatives like electronic
case reporting (eCR), which will be
transformational for public health. For
once public health isn’t taking from the
clinical community…it’s giving back as
well. And we’re giving back information—
which is our commodity.
Kubin: When you start showing real data
and turning it into usable information,
you can make a case for changes, whether
that is changes in funding, legislation,
how people view diseases or public health
itself. n
APHL.org
Fall 2019 LAB MATTERS
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