Jamie  Pina, PhD, MSPH, FAMIA

With more than 20 years of experience driving advancement and innovation in public health technology, Dr. Jamie Pina is a scientific and executive leader in public health informatics and data modernization. As the Scientific Director of Public Health Technology at RTI, Dr. Pina works to solve mission-driven challenges with cutting-edge public health and biomedical information systems and uses research to propel the use of emerging technologies in public health practice. His recent work energizes and enhances national data architectures for public health and biomedical research, exploring the use of health data models and integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into public health practice to improve efficiency.

Currently, Dr. Pina leads several significant biomedical informatics efforts, serving as a Principal Investigator for BioData Catalyst—a cloud-based platform designed to facilitate data sharing, access, and analysis across various biomedical research projects. He is also a Principal Investigator on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, which aims to explore, prevent, and treat long COVID through comprehensive research and data analysis. 

Dr. Pina engages and contributes extensively to the field of public health informatics and data modernization by authoring influential articles, peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and presentations at national conferences. Recent publications include a paper in Public Health Reports on digital tools adopted by public health agencies for COVID-19 case investigation and contract tracing and an article in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice discussing the congressional investments in public health data modernization. 

His research has also explored the use of text messaging to improve adolescent health, the development of public health quality improvement taxonomies, and the implementation of health IT systems. Dr. Pina’s doctoral research focused on the use of electronic notifiable conditions reporting systems in public health practice. 

Dr. Pina’s work is characterized by its focus on practical applications of informatics to solve pressing public health issues, the innovative use of technology in public health initiatives, and the rigorous evaluation of health information systems. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Pina has held key positions that have impacted public health practice. At RTI, he founded and led the Population and Public Health Informatics Program, RTI’s first formal program dedicated to public health informatics. Dr. Pina spent three years as the Vice President of Public Health Data Modernization & Informatics at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). In this role, he championed the need for public health data modernization across a national audience of federal agencies and congressional delegates, secured data modernization as a strategic priority within the organization, and directed research and technical projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Google Health, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). 

Dr. Pina was appointed to the ONC’s 2022 Public Health Data Systems Task Force, establishing national data modernization guidelines for public health practice, which are now integrated into ONC’s Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability (HTI-2) rule. He is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a Board Member on the Health Informatics Advisory Board at George Mason University.