Seeing the big picture

^{From left, Assistant Professor Robin Austin, Ratchada Jantraporn and Associate Professor Sripriya Rajamani.}

Ratchada Jantraporn, PhD, RN, Rida as she’s known to most, began her career as a community nurse in Bangkok, Thailand.

As her career progressed she improved her skills and experience, including earning a master’s degree in community nursing. As health technology advanced, she felt there was still more she could do to improve health outcomes.

“At the front line we collect data and have data on hand, but I think we sometimes miss things because there’s so much information, and our brains might not catch it all,” says Jantraporn. “It’s the data behind the scenes that also enhances our ability to see both the big picture and the finer details. We have a variety of tools to capture and analyze this information, helping us identify blind spots and improve the health of people.”

For Jantraporn and her career, that meant coming to the United States to study nursing informatics. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed a physical move from Thailand to Minnesota. Not to be deterred, Jantraporn began the PhD program at the School of Nursing virtually spending her entire first year studying at night and sleeping during the day so she could be on the same time as her professors and classmates in Minnesota, 12 hours behind Bangkok time. 

Jantraporn was finally able to move to Minnesota in August of 2021 and quickly realized that in addition to finally being in the right time, she had found the right place. 

“I’ve never been in an environment where lots of people were always encouraging me, believing in me to succeed in something that is really hard with advanced technology and resources readily available to support me,” she says.

The more she learned, the more she saw informatics as more than data and analysis. And the more possibilities she discovered to make an impact in the field. 

“It’s so much more than I thought,” says Jantraporn. “It’s about the system. It’s about the people, ethics, and other things that surprised me. I was so excited to learn about all of that.”

Wanting to combine her new passion for informatics and public health on an even larger scale, Jantraporn discovered the Centers for Disease Control’s Public Health Informatics Fellowship, a two-year program where fellows work on advanced projects to enhance information systems that improve the nation’s health.

Jantraporn shared the idea with her PhD adviser Assistant Professor Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP, and Associate Professor Sripriya Rajamani, PhD, MBBS, MPH, who recommended she pursue a Population Health Informatics and Technology (PHIT) Certificate to improve her candidacy for the CDC fellowship. 

A partnership between the School of Nursing, School of Public Health and the Institute for Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota, the PHIT certificate program prepares learners to tap into the power of data for improving public and population health. It offers opportunities to apply the learning with practicum placements such as Jantraporn’s with the Minnesota Department of Health. That experience allowed Jantraporn to see how the type of data she collected as a community nurse could better be used to improve a public health system and how to advance public health infrastructure to leverage this data for a broader impact. 

It also helped her land the prestigious internship she coveted. After graduating from the School of Nursing in May, Jantraporn moved to Atlanta where she’s now assigned to the Office of Informatics and Information Resource Management at the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Where Jantraporn’s lands next is to be determined, but the path she’ll be taking is clear. 

“I want to see myself in five or 10 years as a health care professional who can help advance the public health and nursing informatics workforce,” says Jantraporn. “I want to see myself make a bigger impact on population health by leveraging the power of informatics and technology.”