ATLANTA - As an invited participant to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Public Health Information Network Conference (PHIN), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society announced the 2008 recipients of the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Public Health Award of Excellence. The two public health recipients recognized are:

* Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority, Cherokee, NC
* New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Trenton, NJ

The HIMSS Davies Public Health Award recognizes the impact of information technology and information management on improving the health of a defined population. Applicants must show enhanced care of the overall population, such as a public health department that routinely uses data from its health IT system for more effective care delivery by establishing additional clinics or issuing multi-language alert.

Any federal, state, local, tribal, or non-profit public health program can apply for the award. Size of the system does not matter, but the impacted community must be clearly evident and described by geographic area, socioeconomic group, or other applicable factors.

The HIMSS Davies Public Health Award Committee, comprised of clinicians, public health, and healthcare IT professionals, reviews all applications, conducts site visits, and votes on award recipients. A brief summary of the accomplishments of the award recipients follows. Visit Davies Public Health Award Recipient Manuscripts to view their applications for the award.

Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority, Cherokee, NC: Cherokee Indian Hospital is the primary medical home and public health provider for an active user population of over 10,000 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. CIHA is the governing body for the hospital as an independent component of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Tribal government. Final outcomes reported (2007) as compared to baseline (2004) showed improvement in screening for 10 different measures impacting overall population health. Examples of these measures include: 1) tobacco use screening increased from 43 percent to 80 percent, and 2) domestic violence screening increased from 1 percent to 80 percent.

New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Trenton, NJ: The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' Communicable Disease Reporting and Surveillance System (CDRSS) serves more than 900 trained users from public health nurses to administrative staff in New Jersey's 114 local health departments that cover 566 municipalities in 21 counties. CDRSS is the primary tool for reporting and managing information on New Jersey's communicable diseases that require notification to state and local public health and health care partners. The staff can run reports with maps and summarize data related to outbreaks or code cases by location with the CDRSS design. In 2006, a multi-state E. coli O157:H7 outbreak occurred and was associated with a fast food restaurant chain. The resulting symptoms were beyond the standard definitions for this type of outbreak. With the CDRSS, the Communicable Disease Service (CDS) staff customized case data fields to include the restaurant chain's exposure history and most commonly identified symptoms.

This year's PHIN conference theme, Public Health Informatics: Collaboration at the Crossroads, offers an ideal setting to announce the Davies award recipients," said Steven J. Steindel, PhD, chair of the HIMSS Davies Public Health Award Committee, and senior advisor for Standards and Vocabulary, Centers for Disease Control, in Atlanta, Ga. He noted that the value and contributions of public health become even more useful with the implementation of the electronic health record. "The members of our HIMSS Davies Public Health Award Committee recognize and applaud the accomplishments these two public health recipients have achieved."

Visit Davies Public Health Award Recipient Manuscripts online to read the applications submitted by the CIHA and the CDRSS. Each of these recipients will share the success of their electronic health IT system implementation at the 2009 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. Visit the HIMSS State Dashboard to view all Davies Award recipients.

The 2009 HIMSS Davies Awards Call for Applications opens the second week of January 2009. Contact HIMSS Davies Award Program Director David Collins, at for more information.

About HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence

The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence recognizes excellence in the implementation and use of health information technology, specifically electronic health records (EHRs), for healthcare organizations, private practices, public health systems, and community health organizations. Created by CPRI-HOST in 1994, the first three recipients of the Davies Organizational Award were recognized in 1995. In 2002, CPRI-HOST merged with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and now, HIMSS manages the award program. The Award honors Dr. Nicholas E. Davies, an Atlanta-based practicing physician, president-elect of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Improving the Patient Record, who died in 1991 in a plane crash. Visit HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence for more information, including educational resources.