Public health informatics stands at a transformative crossroads in 2025, driven by technological innovation, data modernization efforts, and increasing recognition of its critical role in addressing global health challenges. This comprehensive analysis explores the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field, examining how emerging technologies, policy initiatives, and workforce trends are reshaping the landscape of public health data systems and their applications.
Data Modernization Initiatives Transforming Public Health Infrastructure
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made significant strides in modernizing public health data infrastructure through its Data Modernization Initiative (DMI), which is being implemented in measurable increments via the Public Health Data Strategy. In April 2024, the CDC launched its updated strategy for 2024-2025 alongside a 2023 Lookback Report, highlighting progress in connecting public health to healthcare data systems and advancing tools that streamline work.
CDC Director Mandy Cohen emphasized that “data are the oxygen that powers our ability to detect and respond to health threats,” underscoring the critical importance of timely data for effective public health response.
The CDC’s Global Public Health Data Innovation (GPHDI) initiative represents another crucial advancement in public health informatics. This three-year initiative, supported by the 2021 U.S. American Rescue Plan Act, targets key barriers to the effective use of data in public health responses, including:
- Issues with data systems
- Workforce limitations
- Gaps in governance and policy
The program funds activities in ten countries across the Americas, Africa, and Asia, supporting projects that strengthen national data analytics infrastructure, enhance decision-making capabilities, and increase capacity building in digital health.
A cornerstone of these modernization efforts is the One CDC Data Platform (1CDP), which aims to create an integrated, scalable, and secure data ecosystem. This platform will enable public health experts to make informed decisions without spending hours manually compiling data across siloed systems, ultimately allowing CDC and state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments to prepare for, detect, and respond to public health threats with unprecedented speed and efficiency.
Interoperability Standards and the Rise of FHIR in Public Health Systems
Interoperability remains a fundamental challenge in public health informatics, with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) emerging as a transformative standard for health data exchange. The CDC’s Public Health Data Strategy outlines ambitious milestones for FHIR adoption across multiple data domains by 2025-2026. These include:
- Implementing FHIR-based exchange of mortality data between CDC and 12 additional jurisdictions by 2025, expanding to 33% of remaining jurisdictions by 2026
- Testing birth data with 15 jurisdictions by 2025
- Testing fetal death data with three jurisdictions by 2025
The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) is also embracing FHIR, with at least 10 healthcare facilities expected to submit critical hospital data to CDC through automated FHIR-based exchange by 2025, increasing by 200% in 2026. These developments build upon the HL7 FHIR Architecture, which has shown potential to deliver benefits across mobile health apps, electronic health records, precision medicine, wearable devices, big data analytics, and clinical decision support systems.
The primary goal of FHIR implementation is to reduce complexity while maintaining information integrity. This new standard integrates benefits of existing HL7 standards while overcoming their drawbacks, enabling developers to create standardized browser applications that allow access to clinical data from any healthcare system regardless of operating systems and devices used.
Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics in Public Health
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a transformative force in public health informatics, with applications ranging from clinical decision support to predictive modeling and automated reporting. According to a Deloitte survey of healthcare executives, accelerated digital transformation—including AI adoption—was cited as the issue most likely to impact global health systems in 2025. More than 80% of surveyed executives expect generative AI to have either a significant or moderate impact on their organizations in 2025, while also acknowledging the need for appropriate regulatory oversight.
The integration of AI into public health workflows is reflected in the CDC’s Public Health Data Strategy, which aims to “define and scale shared AI capabilities within 1CDP by building off learnings and successes of the 2024 AI use cases” by 2025. This initiative recognizes the potential of AI to improve public health efficiency, response readiness, and outcomes when used appropriately and responsibly.
AI applications are increasingly being deployed to reduce administrative burden on healthcare professionals. The 2024 Philips Future Health Index report revealed that 92% of surveyed healthcare leaders consider automation critical for addressing staff shortages by relieving professionals of repetitive tasks, with an equal percentage believing it will save time by reducing administrative work. Generative AI has emerged as a particularly powerful tool in this regard, functioning as a virtual assistant to organize clinical notes and simplify communication of patient information across teams.
Electronic Case Reporting and Disease Surveillance Modernization
Electronic case reporting (eCR) represents a significant advancement in disease surveillance, enabling faster and more efficient reporting from healthcare providers to public health agencies. By 2025, the CDC aims to facilitate improved integration of eCR into STLT systems through tools, standards, and guidance, enabling the phasing out of manual reporting from healthcare facilities.
Specifically, 60% of public health authorities processing eCR data into their surveillance systems are expected to share plans to annually turn off manual reporting for at least one condition from a minimum of 10% of jurisdiction healthcare facilities submitting eCR.
The National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS), an open-source CDC-provided disease surveillance system, is undergoing significant modernization. By 2025, NBS will:
- Double Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) and eCR processing speed
- Provide users access to 100% of inbound data in near real-time
- Give users ready access to eight times more case data
These improvements will be available in an updated, cloud-based version of NBS, with five jurisdictions expected to adopt it by 2025 and 40% of jurisdictions currently using legacy versions transitioning by 2026.
Another notable development is the Data Integration Building Blocks (DIBBs) initiative, which aims to reduce reliance on manual processes in STLT public health agencies by 30% through automated data solutions by the end of 2025. By 2026, the goal is to achieve adoption of at least one DIBBs product by more than 30% of STLTs, increasing national access to high-quality, standardized public health data.
Digital Health Strategies and Global Public Health Initiatives
The World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025 sets out a vision, strategic objectives, and implementation principles to advance digital health globally and within countries. This strategy acknowledges that each country owns its digital health action plan within its national context while promoting the appropriate use of digital technologies as digital public goods adaptable to different countries and contexts.
A recent report from WHO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) highlights the potential impact of digital health interventions. According to the report, an additional investment of just US$0.24 per patient per year in digital health interventions—such as telemedicine, mobile messaging, and chatbots—could help save more than 2 million lives from noncommunicable diseases over the next decade. Such interventions could also avert approximately 7 million acute events and hospitalizations, significantly reducing strain on healthcare systems worldwide.
The implementation of digital health technologies requires appropriate governance structures and regulatory frameworks. The WHO strategy emphasizes the importance of interoperability standards, highlighting syntactic and semantic interoperability with WHO norms and standards as a cornerstone of health information systems. By 2025, the strategy aims to develop a voluntary guideline on global interoperability standards for digital health in collaboration with stakeholders.
Workforce Development and Professional Opportunities
The evolution of public health informatics has created significant demand for skilled professionals who can bridge the gap between public health practice and information technology. The CDC’s Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program (PHIFP) offers a structured pathway into this field. Applications for the PHIFP Class of 2025 were being accepted through November 1, 2024. This two-year program provides on-the-job training for professionals to apply their expertise in information science, computer science, data analytics, and information technology to address current and future informatics needs in public health.
During the fellowship, participants work alongside CDC experts and contribute to crucial public health initiatives, playing a pivotal role in enhancing the CDC’s informatics workforce by tackling real-world challenges and implementing innovative solutions. In addition to hands-on experience, PHIFP provides opportunities for professional development through workshops, seminars, and networking events with leaders in the field.
The field of public health informatics is experiencing a shift in workforce competencies, from maintaining and improving information system functionality and interoperability toward analysis, visualization, and other uses of information to drive population health improvement initiatives. Although some public health informaticians remain—mostly at senior levels—informatics skills, functions, and knowledge are becoming more embedded throughout the public health agency workforce. This enables agencies to more effectively keep up with advances in risk assessment, provide useful population health assessment information, and find more cost-effective methods for all public health activities.
Future Trends: Conferences and Emerging Research Areas
Several major conferences scheduled for 2025 highlight the dynamic nature of public health informatics research and practice:
MEDINFO 2025 (August 9-13, Taipei, Taiwan)
- Theme: “Healthcare Smart x Medicine Deep”
- Focus: Exploring how advancements in biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence can drive meaningful change in healthcare systems worldwide
- Topics include AI-driven diagnostic tools, automated administrative processes, and smart patient care systems
9th International Conference on Medical and Health Informatics (ICMHI 2025) (May 16-18, Kyoto, Japan)
- Bringing together scholars, researchers, and students to exchange experiences and research results in all aspects of medical and health sciences
6th International Conference on Big Data & Health Informatics (BDHI 2025) (February 22-23, Vancouver, Canada)
- Providing a forum for sharing knowledge in theory, methodology, and applications of big data and health informatics
American Medical Informatics Association’s Clinical Informatics Conference 2025
- Focus: Turning innovation into practice-ready solutions that make an immediate impact on patient care
- Topics include reducing clinical documentation burden and alleviating burdens for those who interact with healthcare data
These conferences collectively highlight the growing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing public health informatics.
Policy Directions and Regulatory Considerations
Policy developments at state and federal levels will significantly influence the evolution of public health informatics in 2025. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) has identified modernizing public health data and protecting privacy as top policy issues for 2025. State legislation is expected to focus on:
- Expanding the use of health information exchanges
- Enhancing consumer health data privacy laws
- Improving the accessibility of public health data systems
The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) establishes guiding interoperability principles and standards for health data exchange at the federal level. In response, some states are already implementing complementary legislation. For example, Nevada enacted AB 7 in 2023, requiring new regulations governing health information exchanges and granting certain liability protections to providers using them. The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services intends to require that participating HIEs are TEFCA members, according to proposed rules published in August 2024.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) leaders have outlined their 2025 public policy priorities, including:
- Health equity
- AI regulation
- Cybersecurity
- Workforce development
Looking forward, HIMSS’s primary areas of concern around public policy include health equity, protecting access to telehealth, leveraging technology to reduce maternal mortality, public health data modernization, interoperability and information access, patient identification and matching, and addressing funding challenges for innovation.
Conclusion: Integrating Innovation with Public Health Practice
The field of public health informatics stands at a pivotal moment, characterized by rapid technological advancement, evolving governance frameworks, and growing recognition of its essential role in addressing complex health challenges. The developments outlined in this report—from data modernization initiatives and interoperability standards to AI applications and workforce development programs—collectively point to a future where public health decision-making is increasingly data-driven, collaborative, and responsive.
As we move through 2025, the successful integration of these innovations into public health practice will depend on continued investment in infrastructure, thoughtful policy development, and a skilled workforce capable of navigating the intersection of technology and public health. By leveraging these advancements effectively, public health agencies can enhance their ability to detect and respond to health threats, reduce health disparities, and ultimately improve population health outcomes in communities around the world.