Public health is complex and previous work has demonstrated the value of systems modelling in understanding its complexity. Today the need for systems modelling in public health has increased because the delivery of the public health function is being reengineered with an additional layer of complexity. The service is now more distributed and as a consequence there is a demand that information and communication technologies (ICT) should be employed to a greater extent in ensuring public health provision. It is essential that a good public health service is maintained within this new framework and the public health network (PHN) has been proposed as the solution. We aim to demonstrate the potential value of systems modelling in this newly re-engineered public health environment by showing how it can be used to convert the complex input of the public health network project into a realistic, holistic and potentially successful plan to implement and evaluate the network.

Background: The movement of public health professionals from health authorities to primary care trusts has increased their isolation and dependence on public health networks for communication. Methods: A cross sectional survey of 60 public health professionals working in England was performed to determine their understanding of the term ''public health network'' and to explore the functions that they would like these networks to perform. It also assessed their attitudes towards a national network and towards individual, local, and national web sites to support these networks. Results: The most popular functions were the support of CPD/education, the identification of expertise and maximisation of scarce resources, information sharing, and efficient information/knowledge management. The local and national networks and their web sites should provide information on current projects of the network and searches to identify people, expertise, and reports. Conclusion: Public health professionals have a similar but broader understanding of the term ''public health network'' than that of the government with greater emphasis on sharing of information. The network is more likely to be successful if its priorities are maximising scarce resources, identification of expertise, CPD/education, and knowledge management.

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The National Health Service is being re-engineered. One of the components is that public health medicine needs to be delivered differently but effectively. It has been proposed that this should be done via managed public health networks (MPHNs). Underpinning this re-engineering there is an increasing role for ICT (information and communication technologies) and previous work suggests that most of the communication over the networks would be predominantly electronic. The development of MPHNs involves much complexity. This study aims to demonstrate the value of systems modelling when implementing and evaluating ICT in public health by applying it to their development.Our objectives are first to propose system models and methodologies, which can be used to understand the critical elements and their inter-relationships within the MPHN. Second, we wanted to apply the information derived from the models to propose a prototype model and to produce a system-based implementation and evaluation plan to realize the network. These objectives were achieved by combining soft system methodology with soft systems diagrams to propose relevant systems models. We conclude that systems modelling facilitates the understanding, implementation and evaluation of ICT in healthcare.