Prairie View A&M University students are learning, alongside other students from institutions across Texas, how to make public health information technology more fair, inclusive and equitable. The ultimate goal of public health information technology, also known as public health informatics, is to use information, computer science and technology to promote the health of the overall population and prevent diseases and injuries.

“There is increasing demand from industries, academics and public services for public health informatics skills. But currently, there is a significant lack of workforce with public health informatics skills from underrepresented groups,” said Seungchan Kim, Ph.D., chief scientist and executive professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering and the director of the CRI Center for Computational Systems Biology at PVAMU.

Dr. Kim is leading PVAMU’s efforts in the Gaining Equity in Training for Public Health Informatics and Technology (GET PHIT) Consortium, part of a national initiative to expand diversity in the increasingly important field of public health information technology.

The consortium, launched in 2021 with a $10 million award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, will train about 1,400 students from predominantly underrepresented groups over four years alongside 500 public health, academic and clinic professionals. It will also place about 400 students in internships.

As the PVAMU lead, Dr. Kim oversees the coordination among consortium partners. The other faculty members and co-leads include Drs. Sharon McWhinney (Nutrition); Andrea McDonald (School of Public and Allied Health); Max Winshell Fontus (Undergraduate Medical Academy, Chemistry); Noushin Ghaffari (Computer Science); and Naznin Sultana (UMA).

Cultivating Excellence in Public Health

In May, 33 students participated in PVAMU’s first summer boot camp on public health informatics, one of three in-person summer boot camps planned across the consortium. Other participating universities will host a boot camp this July and August and an online boot camp, which started June 27.

The two-week experience offered a combination of lectures and hands-on exercises in the first week and collaborative research projects in the second week. Sessions covered data science, data surveillance and analysis, health equity, data bias, and epidemiology. Additionally, students who completed the boot camp were paid $1,500 by the consortium.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of data collection and analysis, which informed public health decisions and helped shape critical policies.

The racial disparities in health care that became glaringly obvious during the pandemic have spurred students like Amarys Royal, a junior at PVAMU majoring in biology, to go into the field to make a difference for their families and communities.

Royal aspires to pursue an MD/MPH to join the medical field because of her family, who live in the Hempstead/Waller area and other rural parts of Texas. “Most of my family either don’t have immediate access to health care or are mistreated and misdiagnosed by malicious health care workers,” Royal said. “This drives my interest in the medical field and understanding every part of it.”

Another undergraduate student, Skylar Fort, a future community health nurse and president of the Eta Sigma Gamma Honor Society in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, soon to be the School of Public and Allied Health, stated this was a different type of learning compared to all the other camps she attended. “I think that learning about public health informatics supports my dream to advance in the nursing field as I can enhance my skills in data management to improve patient outcomes.” She went on to say that she lives in a rural community and has first-hand experience with not having access to a health clinic close to her home.

Both students were excited about the overall experience and exposure to public health informatics on the PVAMU campus. Fort suggested that having more training on public health informatics can provide other insights to other students who are undecided about their careers. For Royal, learning how to comb through big data sets and meeting others with similar interests and pursuits made the experience memorable.

Dr. McDonald added that public health training opportunities are essential, and exposing students from different backgrounds provides a more integrative and multidisciplinary view of the public health workforce.

Dr. Fontus emphasized that pre-med students should be exposed to the different career paths available to physicians. He further stressed the investigative and rigorous critical thinking skills that a working knowledge of data science imparts to those students aspiring to join the public health and acute care sectors of medicine.

Inspiring a Journey of Discovery and Transformation

Anisa Cole, a sophomore majoring in biology, was first exposed to public health informatics last summer after taking an elective research course that gave her an appreciation for the “somewhat tedious” process of gathering, preparing, and analyzing data.

During the camp, Cole learned about statistical tests and their uses in assessing possible correlations. She credited Dr. Kim “for breaking down this information to my group in a form that was easily digestible,” adding that he “played a large role in us getting past the data and data analysis stages of our research.”

Shantal Taylor, a biomedical chemistry major with a minor in biology, aspires to become a family medicine doctor and epidemiologist. “The GET PHIT boot camp was a unique experience for me on my path to medicine. The program’s excellent coordinators and professors provide me insight into many subjects and topics, such as health data science, public health informatics, and securing public health data.”

Taylor gained a deeper understanding of some issues and their impact on the lives of others.

“The topics we discussed were employed to benefit the greater society by providing insight into trends in the population and possibly saving millions of lives while respecting the patient’s right to privacy,” Taylor said. “The most significant impact this boot camp had on me was the impression left by the epidemiology courses. As the presenters were in-depth and used easily understood examples, I could resonate with the lessons and make decisions I was previously indecisive about.”

Additionally, the boot camp was instrumental in shaping Taylor’s career. “After careful consideration, I solidified my desire to enter the epidemiology and public health field as I became more aware of the influence I wanted to have in the world.”

Unleashing True Potential

The students for the PVAMU boot camp were selected based on their academic credentials, the potential impact on their community, and socioeconomic background, such as whether they are first-generation college students or participated in a Head Start program. They included 23 students from PVAMU; the remaining nine represented The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and one from UTHealth.

“The GET PHIT boot camp at PVAMU was one of the most diverse and inclusive experiences I’ve had,” said Jaiden Vaughan, a sophomore health and kinesiology major. “I was afforded the opportunity to learn and work with students and professors from different backgrounds. The presentation of the public health data was engaging, and we were able to learn in a collaborative environment.”

Of the introductions to public health by a new professor each day during the first week, Jaden appreciates Dr. Kim’s “determination to ensure we understood the material.” Jaden’s favorite aspect of the boot camp was the group projects during the second week. “Even though we had our groups, we were all able to network with each other and learn about our assigned topics,” Jaden said. “On the last day of the program, we did project presentations, and every group’s PowerPoint was informative and interesting. Overall, I enjoyed the boot camp and am very thankful for the professors, the GET PHIT program, and UT Health Science Center at Houston for this opportunity.”

During the recent boot camp, six groups of students gave presentations on various public health topics and issues. The winning team presented on access to care, and the runner-up covered diabetes.

Presentations were judged and evaluated on criteria including methods and approach, results and discussion, and presentation delivery. Both groups received certificates and Amazon gift cards.

The winning team:

Mariata Ba (PVAMU)

Kendel Thomas (PVAMU)

Mackynzee Deere (PVAMU)

Tomiwa Olaniyan (PVAMU)

Colten Carlson (UTRGV)

Runner ups:

Keeland Harville (PVAMU)

Aaliyah Woodard (PVAMU)

Asenath Genanaw (PVAMU)

Jalen Elrod (PVAMU)

Claudia Garza (UTRGV)

GET PHIT is the Texas arm of the HHS ONC’s Public Health Informatics & Technology Workforce Development Program Workforce Program, which was launched under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to aid COVID-19 data collection and expand national public health information technology efforts.

Led by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and School of Biomedical Informatics, the seven other consortium partners, in addition to PVAMU, include:

Huston-Tillotson University

Texas A&M International University

Texas Tech University Health Science Center

The University of Texas at Arlington

The University of Texas at El Paso

The University of Texas Permian Basin

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley