The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) used multiple methods to provide guidance to healthcare providers on the management and prevention of Zika virus disease during 2016. To better understand providers' use of information sources related to emerging disease threats, this article describes reported use of information sources by NYC providers to stay informed about Zika, and patterns observed by provider type and practice setting. We sent an electronic survey to all email addresses in the Provider Data Warehouse, a system used to maintain information from state and local health department sources on all prescribing healthcare providers in NYC. The survey asked providers about their use of information sources, including specific information products offered by the NYC DOHMH, to stay informed about Zika during 2016. Trends by provider type and practice setting were described using summary statistics. The survey was sent to 44,455 unique email addresses; nearly 20% (8,711) of the emails were undeliverable. Ultimately, 1,447 (5.8%) eligible providers completed the survey. Most respondents (79%) were physicians. Overall, the most frequently reported source of information from the NYC DOHMH was the NYC Health Alert Network (73%). Providers in private practice reported that they did not use any NYC DOHMH source of information about Zika more frequently than did those working in hospital settings (29% vs 23%); similarly, private practitioners reported that they did not use any other source of information about Zika more frequently than did those working in hospital settings (16% vs 8%). Maintaining timely and accurate databases of healthcare provider contact information is a challenge for local public health agencies. Effective strategies are needed to identify and engage independently practicing healthcare providers to improve communications with all healthcare providers during public health emergencies.

Objectives We evaluated the impact of a 2014 New York City health code change requiring laboratories to indicate if a patient is pregnant or probably pregnant in the electronic laboratory report (ELR) when reporting syphilis and hepatitis B virus (HBV) cases to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). Methods We calculated the number of pregnant persons with syphilis or HBV infection reported to DOHMH from January 1, 2013, through June 30, 2018. We compared the proportion in which the first report to DOHMH was an ELR with pregnancy indicated before and after the policy change. We calculated time between first ELR with pregnancy indicated and subsequent reporting by a method other than ELR and the proportion of cases in which ELR with pregnancy indicated was the only report source. Results A total of 552 new syphilis and 8414 HBV-infected cases were reported to DOHMH. From January 2013–June 2014 (pre-change) to January 2017–June 2018 (post-change), the proportion of cases in which ELR with pregnancy indicated was the first report to DOHMH increased significantly (14.7% [23/156] to 46.2% [80/173] for syphilis; 8.0% [200/2498] to 45.3% [851/1879] for HBV infection [ P < .001]). Median time between first ELR with pregnancy indicated and subsequent reporting by a method other than ELR was 9.0 days for syphilis and 51.0 days for HBV infection. ELR with pregnancy indicated was the only report for 43.1% (238/552) of syphilis cases and 23.4% (1452/6200) of HBV cases during the study period. Conclusion Including pregnancy status with ELR can increase the ability of public health departments to conduct timely interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission.