Online Journal of Public Health Informatics

A leading peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the dissemination of high-quality research and innovation in the field of public health informatics.

Editor-in-Chief:

Edward K. Mensah PhD, MPhil, Associate Professor Emeritus of Health Economics and Informatics, Health Policy and Administration Division, School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA


The Online Journal of Public Health Informatics (OJPHI) aims to promote the application of informatics to improve public health research, education and policy. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives/viewpoints that cover a broad range of topics related to public health informatics.

OJPHI has been published since 2009, but from 2023 onwards it will be published by JMIR Publications. Volumes published prior to 2023 can be found here

All papers are rigorously peer-reviewed, copyedited, and XML-typeset. 

The Online Journal of Public Health Informatics is indexed in PubMedPubMed Central (PMC)DOAJ, Sherpa/Romeo, and Scopus.

Recent Articles

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Public Health

e-Pharmacy can potentially solve problems related to the quality of services and products, cost, and access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries. This review aims to understand the facilitators and barriers to the implementation of e-pharmacy in India.

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Mobile Health Technology and Digital Platforms for Public Health

Vaccination services are increasingly in demand by the public, and mobile apps are an effective tool to meet that demand. However, the characteristics and quality of these apps are unknown.

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Big Data for Health Promotion and Health Equity

Eye care organizations and professionals worldwide are increasingly focusing on bridging the gap between population health and medical practice. Recent advances in genomics and anthropology have revealed that most Indian groups trace their ancestry to a blend of 2 genetically distinct populations: Ancestral North Indians, who share genetic affinities with Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians, genetically distinct from groups outside the Indian subcontinent. Studies conducted among North Indian populations can therefore offer insights that are potentially applicable to these diverse global populations, underscoring significant implications for global health.

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Social Media in Public Health informatics

Consideration of ethics in the promotion of medications is essential to safeguard the health of consumers, particularly during health crises. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) have established stringent standards to ensure the integrity of pharmaceutical promotions and safeguard public health, including advertisements on the internet and social media platforms. However, the dynamic nature of online advertising poses challenges for monitoring and enforcing ethical standards.

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Public Health Data Analytics

The number of opioid-related deaths in the United States has more than tripled over the past 7 years, with a steep increase beginning at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need for novel treatment options that can help alleviate the individual and social effects of refractory opioid use disorder (OUD). Deep brain stimulation (DBS), an intervention that involves implanting electrodes in the brain to deliver electrical impulses, is one potential treatment. Currently in clinical trials for many psychiatric conditions, including OUD, DBS’s use for psychiatric indications is not without controversy. Several studies have examined ethical issues raised by using DBS to counter treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders. In contrast, there has been limited literature regarding the use of DBS for OUD.

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Infodemiology in Public Health Informatics

Vaccine hesitancy is a growing global health threat that is increasingly studied through the monitoring and analysis of social media platforms. One understudied area is the impact of echo chambers and influential users on disseminating vaccine information in social networks. Assessing the temporal development of echo chambers and the influence of key users on their growth provides valuable insights into effective communication strategies to prevent increases in vaccine hesitancy. This also aligns with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) infodemiology research agenda, which aims to propose new methods for social listening.

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Review Articles

Telecare and telehealth are important care-at-home services used to support individuals to live more independently at home. Historically, these technologies have reactively responded to issues. However, there has been a recent drive to make better use of the data from these services to facilitate more proactive and predictive care.

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Public Health Data Analytics

Metadata describe and provide context for other data, playing a pivotal role in enabling findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) data principles. By providing comprehensive and machine-readable descriptions of digital resources, metadata empower both machines and human users to seamlessly discover, access, integrate, and reuse data or content across diverse platforms and applications. However, the limited accessibility and machine-interpretability of existing metadata for population health data hinder effective data discovery and reuse.

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Theme Issue 2023: Precision Public Health

Factors such as anxiety, worry, and perceptions of insufficient knowledge about a topic motivate individuals to seek web-based health information to guide their health-related decision-making. These factors converged during the COVID-19 pandemic and were linked to COVID-19 vaccination decision-making. While research shows that web-based search relevant to COVID-19 was associated with subsequent vaccine uptake, less is known about COVID-19 vaccine intent search (which assesses vaccine availability, accessibility, and eligibility) as a signal of vaccine readiness.

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Population and Public Health Informatics

Population viral load (VL), the most comprehensive measure of the HIV transmission potential, cannot be directly measured due to lack of complete sampling of all people with HIV.

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Mobile Health Technology and Digital Platforms for Public Health

The World Health Organization has recommended digital adherence tools (DATs) as a promising intervention to improve antituberculosis drug adherence. However, the acceptability of DATs in resource-limited settings is not adequately studied.

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Preprints Open for Peer-Review

There are no preprints available for open peer-review at this time. Please check back later.

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