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Web-based Reporting Portal

Description

Secure and confidential exchange of information is the cornerstone of public health practice. Often, this exchange has to occur between public health agencies across jurisdictions. Examples include notification of reportable diseases when the testing and residence of the patient are in different counties. The cross-jurisdictional issues become exaggerated in times of communicable disease outbreaks or events of interest that are not yet classified as outbreaks. Currently, such communication occurs between state and local agencies and between agencies and community clinicians on a personal level, with phone, fax and snail mail. There are a multitude of secured websites hosted by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) that offer access to single applications requiring approved users to remember multiple sites and logins/passwords. The goal of this project was to develop a centralized, single sign-on secure web portal, from which users could access multiple applications and communicate securely with each other.

 

Objective

There is an urgent need for improved communication between stakeholders involved in outbreak investigations, public health reporting and events of interest occurring between different jurisdictions within the same state. Currently, state and local public health agency personnel rely on personal communications involving phone, fax and snail mail. UDOH sought to develop and encourage the use of a secured web portal that allows access to a variety of applications using a single sign-on. This was achieved by developing a secured communications framework called PHAccess that allows tools and applications to be implemented within a secure web environment, using open source software and Agile methodology techniques. The user-centric design currently hosts an electronic report-staging area, ELR/EMR reporting, webbased reporting, secure messaging between stakeholders and a state laboratory result look-up feature. Currently, there are over 700 registered users; 3693 secure messages that have been exchanged and the site has been accessed over 12,205 times since January 2009. Informal feedback from users has been encouraging and formal evaluation is planned, along with expansion and integration with state level health information exchange projects. 

Submitted by hparton on
Description

While early event detection systems aim to detect disease outbreaks before traditional means, following up on the many alerts generated by these systems can be time-consuming and a drain on limited resources.

Authorized users at local, regional and state levels in North Carolina rely on the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool's (NC DETECT) Java-based Web application to monitor and follow-up on signals based on the CDC’s EARS CUSUM algorithms. The application provides users with access to aggregate syndrome-based reports as well as to patient-specific line listing reports for three data sources: emergency departments, ambulance runs and the statewide poison control center. All NC DETECT Web functionality is developed in a user-centered, iterative process with user feedback guiding enhancements and new development. This feedback, along with the need for improved situational awareness and the desire to improve communication among users drove the development of the Annotation Reports and the Custom Event Report.

 

Objective

We describe the addition of two reports to NC DETECT designed to improve NC public health situational awareness capability.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

After the SARS outbreak in 2003, Beijing established Fever Clinics in major hospitals for the early detection of potential respiratory disease outbreaks. The data collection in Fever Clinics contains the basic patient information, body temperature, cough, and breath condition, as well as a primary diagnosis. Since the symptoms and diagnosis are mainly recorded in free text format, it is very difficult to use for data analysis. Because of the problems in data processing, the data collection has decreased.

 

Objective

This paper describes the methodology in the development of an Integrated Surveillance System for Beijing, China.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (NYC DOHMH) Division of Disease Control (DDC) conducts surveillance of more than 90 specific diseases and conditions and relies on both provider reports and electronic laboratory reports for data. While laboratory reports provide vital laboratory data and represent the majority of the surveillance data that DOHMH receives, they are not always timely or sufficient to confirm a case. Provider reports, in contrast, contain data often not available in laboratory reports and can be more prompt than laboratory reports. Health care providers submit provider reports through multiple channels, including through mailing or faxing paper forms, phone calls, and Reporting Central (RC). In 2016, providers used RC to submit ~51,000 provider reports.

Objective:

As part of New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (NYC DOHMH) efforts to improve provider reporting, the Division of Disease Control surveyed and conducted focus groups with users of a web-based reporting portal called Reporting Central (RC) to learn about their experience with submitting provider reports through RC and the impact of their experience on data submission.

Submitted by elamb on