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Using IT To Build Healthier Communities

3,579 views · Published 7 May 2008 · 53:10 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: CITRIS and the Banatao Institute · 2008 · Science & Technology

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Using IT To Build Healthier Communities 
Deryk Van Brunt [Associate Clinical Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health; Chairman, Healthy Communities Foundation]
Abstract:
Most research and development in the use of information technology to advance human health is focused on improving health care technologies and biotechnologies. However, over 50% of the determinants of health are related to lifestyle and to the environment in which we live. One strategy to improve health outcomes is to implement technology systems that improve community awareness of the determinants of health and support effective community planning. For example, smoking cessation and childhood obesity are important health issues that may be addressed more efficiently with interventions at the community level than at the individual level; almost certainly both types of interventions are key components to sustainable solutions.


We will review the need for, and requirements of, community health information systems that can track, and help improve, community health issues. We will also demonstrate an early web-based model that is now being piloted to better manage community health.

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