Public Health and Information Technology at the United States-Mexico Border: Examples Show Potential

This report explores the current use of Health Information Technologies on the U.S.–Mexico border. This region is characterized by remote, frontier geography, diverse populations, special health care needs, poor access to health services and limited access to broadband service.

The paper focuses on three health improvement objectives based on the priorities of the Healthy Border 2010 Initiative: immunizations, obesity/diabetes, and tuberculosis. It examines the use of health information technology in public health programs at the U.S.-Mexico.

While there are challenges to implementation of HIT in the border region, there are many positive examples of its adoption, which are highlighted in this report.

Link to the paper posted on the website of the U.S. DHHS Health Resources and Services Administration:
http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/pub/border_files/border.htm (HTML version)

ftp://ftp.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/orhpborderhealth.pdf(PDF version)
This paper is also available in hard copy. Please send requests for the publication to frontierus@frontierus.org.