Our goal is to develop culturally relevant public health informatics and technology curricula through a health equity lens, with multiple tracks that prepare students to meet the needs of public health-related employers. Our program includes California state community colleges, Cal State campuses, and University of California together in complementary roles to form the California Consortium for Public Health Informatics & Technology (CCPHIT) in partnership with health partners, including Departments of Public Health, public health community clinics, and associations. We also engage community-based partners, such as health advocacy organizations, health industry providers, insurers, and technology/service organizations. Two of these key partners are:
- Futuro Health, a community-based non-profit that focuses on the largest network of credentialed allied health workers in the nation, and
- IEEE, which is at the apex of digital transformation globally, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
Regional health departments and relevant private industry partners are committed to providing paid experiential learning opportunities for participants. CCPHIT can successfully contribute to meeting workforce placements and apply our collective strategies to creating a sustainable, ongoing pipeline of a diverse PHIT workforce to assist in addressing future Public Health challenges. The consortium is 3-tier in its educational institutions with the community colleges as our frontline of engagement with communities. The educational institutions in the consortium will sustain the teaching of the new PHIT courses and motivate other educational institutions outside our consortium to do the same.