Dr. Lloyd Novick’s Editorial Stewardship in Public Health Informatics: The Journey of a Trailblazer

Introduction This commentary discusses the significant influence of Dr. Novick's stewardship of three decades in promoting public health informatics (PHI) research. It honors his lasting editorial legacy as the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (JPHMP). The interdisciplinary field of health informatics leverages artificial intelligence, big data, information technology, and predictive data analytics to enhance population health and improve patient outcomes, while also streamlining decision making and operational processes.1-3 Public health informatics has evolved since the 1970s from fragmented, standalone departmental systems to national and global infrastructures. These new infrastructures link traditionally siloed health care and public health sectors. The decisive turning points included CDC initiatives such as Epi Info, WONDER, INPHO, and the Health Alert Network, as well as legislative investments like the HITECH Act and collaborative efforts like the Digital Bridge, each advancing connectivity, preparedness, and data exchange.4 The COVID-19 pandemic tested the robustness of national informatics infrastructure in meeting the public health agencies' (PHAs) needs during this crisis. These needs included timely intelligence through real-time dashboards, case-reporting pipelines, and geospatial mapping.4,5 The COVID-19 pandemic exposed flaws in the information infrastructure, accelerating the Data Modernization Initiative, underscoring that future success will depend on workforce investment, cloud-based solutions, and system-wide adoption of common standards.4,6 More recently, CDC's Data Modernization Initiative has evolved to replace some of these systems, such as INPHO, with new platforms that meet public health information needs by leveraging modern technology. These new platforms include the One CDC Data Platform, which links various health information systems for enhanced decision making and surveillance; CDC-INFO, which connects the public with live agents for science-based information; and the Health Alert Network, which provides real-time updates to health professionals about health threats.7 The Epi Info is being sunset as of September 1, 2025, to channel resources to One CDC Data Platform.8 Health informatics provides numerous practical and policy applications for health care and PHAs across the United States by utilizing advances in artificial intelligence. For instance, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy's use case inventory currently provides 270 use cases for health care and PHAs, showcasing the application of AI and large language models in streamlining complex processes.9 These tools enhance decision making and improve population health outcomes. The interoperability of information systems has been enhanced by federal initiatives, such as the HHS Geospatial Data Strategy (2023-2026) and the HHS Data Strategy (2023-2028), which bolster emergency response, preparedness, and efficient planning through cross-sectoral data sharing.10,11 These initiatives support superior disease outbreak surveillance, improved resource allocation, and the integration of social determinants of health (SDoH) into practice and policy. Health informatics also improves operational efficiency, emergency response, and population health management in public health services. Dr. Novick's Role in Advancing Informatics Scholarship From the outset of his editorial leadership in 1995, Dr. Novick remained informed about the evolving landscape of public health policy and practice, including the significance of health informatics,12 and emphasized the value of engaging practitioners and academic researchers in practice-relevant research. Consequently, the journal became a conduit for collaborative research among policy experts, academics, and practitioners. Creating a scientifically robust and practice-driven platform, JPHMP became a unique venue for examining informatics as a strategic source of practice-relevant research. To bridge practice and research evidence, the journal created a special niche for public health practice and policy stakeholders to engage with the journal through special sections for articles, including Practice Full Reports, Practice Brief Reports, Getting Practical, State of Public Health, Management Moment, and News from NACCHO. To this end, he also solicited guest editor teams for supplements (special topic issues) that represented public health practice. Dr. Novick also proactively involved PHA representatives in the JPHMP Editorial Board. His approach for creating practice-relevant research evidence became more evident in the journal's editorial policies. Authors were required to articulate implications of their research for practice and policy as special sections in their articles and reports. This ensured that the journal content, including that covering informatics, data systems, workforce training, or the interoperability of information systems, was methodologically sound, producing evidence that was meaningful to public health department leaders and other employees. With the vision of health informatics being a critical part of PHI, Dr. Novick's stewardship included the development of special issues and supplements dedicated fully or partially to PHI. The 2015 Environmental Public Health Tracking supplement presented the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners in the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (Tracking Program), demonstrating how the principles of data analytics and information systems can aid and improve environmental health hazard surveillance.13 The September/October 2017 Supplement, also dedicated to Environmental Public Health Tracking, comprised research and practice case studies. These studies documented the use of geospatial informatics in tracking environmental health hazards and the impacts of environmental pollution on health outcomes. The collection of articles in this supplement demonstrates the potential of data-driven geographic information systems and tools in guiding efficient surveillance and resource allocation.14 The 2016 Public Health Informatics Supplement was dedicated exclusively to research on health informatics utilization and needs assessment of local health departments (LHDs). It comprised a collection of articles highlighting topics in LHDs' informatics infrastructure, including urgent challenges such as EHR adoption in LHDs, their current and desired informatics competencies, information exchange partners, and syndromic surveillance capacity.15-17 The 2022 special issue on transformation and innovation further showcased research addressing equity-centric data systems design and modeling, data modernization, and cross-sectoral data exchange, enabling the integration of SDoH into public health innovations.18 Evidence of Evolving Focus on Health Informatics In addition to the special supplements, the journal has been publishing health informatics research since its launch. Figure 1 shows a steady but increasing trend in publishing articles covering PHI. Overall, the journal published 466 articles related to informatics. When health informatics as a field was in its infancy in 1995, the journal published 12 health informatics-focused articles, which rose to 19 in 1996. The number of informatics publications grew steadily, peaking in the years in which special supplements were published. The JPHMP's responsiveness to practice needs is evident in the growth trends of publications that align with the rise in the application of health informatics in practice and policy, fueled by national investments in health informatics.FIGURE 1: Number of Publications in the JPHMP With Health Informatics and Related Terms in the Title or Abstract, PubMed, 1995 to 2025. Several publications illustrate the journal's practice-guiding research. Shah et al identified interoperability challenges facing LHDs that created barriers to information exchange between LHDs and other PHAs, as well as SDoH industries and sectors.1 These findings led to implications for funding and policy. Massoudi et al examined workforce training needs in informatics, which helped guide initiatives for building health departments' informatics capacity.19 Hartsell et al document barriers in electronic case reporting, offering insight into real-world adoption of new systems and providing recommendations.20 Shah et al demonstrated how PHI could be leveraged to address health disparities, highlighting its role as a tool for equity.21 Collectively, these and many of the 466 contributions show how JPHMP published research to support informatics-enabled practice. Conclusions For nearly 3 decades, Dr. Lloyd Novick's leadership as the founding editor-in-chief of the JPHMP has characterized a vision that places informatics at the center of modern public health practice through proactive provision of practice-relevant research. His work as an editor led to the creation of supplements, topical issues, and policies that made PHI a strategic goal, rather than just a passing interest. Health informatics research published in the journal has the potential to shape national policy and its adoption in public health practice. As PHAs face ongoing challenges in data modernization, workforce capacity, and equity, the JPHMP's legacy provides a foundation for continued progress. As the journal transitions into its next editorial era, its legacy under Dr. Novick provides a blueprint. It will help sustain the production of practice-based research that informs evidence-based practice and policy. The ongoing mission for the journal should be to follow Dr. Novick's lead in embracing research on both the technological and sociopolitical dimensions of health informatics, while ensuring the inclusivity and adaptability of the research. The journal can keep Dr. Novick's work alive by duly acknowledging the need for scientific research on PHI as the cornerstone of 21st-century public health practice.