Public health agencies have to work with a several disparate systems, a lack of robust reporting capabilities, and a lack of standardized surveillance, along with inherent funding challenges. The purpose of this analysis is to help state and local health departments explore the potential of available surveillance systems to meet their needs, framing the landscape of the EDSS world so that they can make informed surveillance IT decisions. The analysis represents a point-in-time snapshot of the functionality of these systems. While this analysis does not constitute a vendor selection or recommendation, the analysis provides public health agencies a platform to inform their own selection processes, offering:
Insight into the EDSS landscape, using the selected representative systems
A framework to assist public health agencies in understanding their surveillance IT requirements
Templates and information to help reduce the number of vendors to be considered
Assistance to determine which EDSS can meet their needs