Discussion: Public Health Informatics
You are a public health scientist and informatician assigned to lead a team of environmental specialists investigating an outbreak of lead poisoning in a small community. The suspicion is that the lead poisoning has been caused by pollution generated by a large commercial plant that produces paints under a federal contract. The community water sources have been contaminated with the plant waste. Your assigned task is to organize your team and lead a surveillance investigation. You must meet with the community's elected leaders to discuss the outbreak, present preliminary outbreak data, and explain how your team will proceed with its investigation (O'Carroll, Yasnoff, Ward, & Ripp, 2010).
You have chosen the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which is used in the CDC'S Epi Info application to understand, question, interpret, and visualize data.
As the team leader and primary informatician, explain the data collection procedures, which you will instruct the team to use to investigate the outbreak. Why might you choose to use the CDC's Epi Info and its GIS for the outbreak analyses and report? From your readings on theory and strategy-based communication principles, describe what approach you will use to present likely outcomes, and to best answer questions posed by the community leaders. Assume the questions posed will inquire about the community and individual factors affected by the information outcomes.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.