An essential theme of the US Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan is interoperability and the ability to effectively exchange information using specific data and technical standards.1 In 2005, in an effort to accelerate the development of a national laboratory standards-based electronic data-sharing network, APHL and CDC collaborated to launch PHLIP.2 The goals of PHLIP include, but are not limited to, improving the quality of data exchanged, piloting sustainable architecture for laboratory data exchange, sending and receiving HL7 test results from states to CDC programs (v2.3.1), increasing the use of Route-not-Read hubs for regional data exchange, and expanding these efforts beyond National Notifiable Diseases (NNDs). In an effort to achieve these goals, APHL solicited input directly from the PHL community to understand what assistance was necessary to achieve success with ELSM; in this case, Influenza as a prototype. After receiving feedback from PHLs responsible for reporting NNDs, the concept of technical assistance teams was formulated. In early 2010, APHL initiated an effort to send out the PATs to implement the ELSM message for Influenza in as many PHLs as possible by December 2010.
Objective
This paper describes the Public Health Laboratory Interoperability Project (PHLIP) assistance team (PAT) approach and the collaborative efforts between the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to achieve electronic laboratory surveillance messaging (ELSM) for Influenza. The knowledge transfer and experience gained by state public health laboratories (PHLs) participating in PHLIP could serve as an interoperability model for other data messaging and surveillance initiatives.