Biosurveillance, Case Reporting, and Decision Support: Public Health Interactions with a Health Information Exchange

Hills, Rebecca; Lober, William B.; Painter, Ian

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-89746-0_2

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…We participated in several population health scenarios and implemented interoperability profiles, including those to support notifiable condition reporting and patient-specific public health alerting (47). …”

Section: Methods/experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the XForms Standard to Public Health Case Reporting and Alerting

Hills

Baseman

Revere

et al. 2011

OJPHI

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Notifiable condition reporting and alerting are two important public health functions. Today, a variety of methods are used to transfer these types of information. The increasing use of electronic health record systems by healthcare providers makes new types of electronic communication possible. We used the XForms standard and nationally recognized technical profiles to demonstrate the communication of both notifiable condition reports and patient-tailored public health alerts. This demonstration of bi-directional communication took placein a prototypical health information exchange environment. We successfully transferred information between provider electronic health record systems and public health systems for notifiable condition reporting. Patient-specific alerts were successfully sent from public health to provider systems. In this paper we discuss the benefits of XForms, including the use of XML, advanced form controls, form initialization and reduction in scripting. We also review implementation challenges, the maturity of the technology and its suitability for use in public health.

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Section: Methods/experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the XForms Standard to Public Health Case Reporting and Alerting

Hills

Baseman

Revere

et al. 2011

OJPHI

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“…social network analysis and geographic information systems) have put pressure on the informatics discipline and public health practitioners alike to translate these advances into common practice [1, 7, 13, 14]. This pressure has been particularly acute for the surveillance and management of infectious diseases with pandemic or bioterrorism potential [7, 15-17]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the electronic age, computer-aided generation of charts, maps, and reports have enabled a further increase in the use of visualization tools to supplement individual-level clinical data and population-level statistics [7, 15]. Infectious disease burden in the population, whether measured for programmatic or outbreak management purposes, is now commonly analyzed in terms of geographic distribution, clinical risk factors, demographics, molecular and phylogenetic features, or sources of exposure such as social networks [20-23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization and analytics tools for infectious disease epidemiology: A systematic review

Carroll

Detwiler

et al. 2014

Journal of Biomedical Informatics

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210

171

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Background A myriad of new tools and algorithms have been developed to help public health professionals analyze and visualize the complex data used in infectious disease control. To better understand approaches to meet these users' information needs, we conducted a systematic literature review focused on the landscape of infectious disease visualization tools for public health professionals, with a special emphasis on geographic information systems (GIS), molecular epidemiology, and social network analysis. The objectives of this review are to: (1) Identify public health user needs and preferences for infectious disease information visualization tools; (2) Identify existing infectious disease information visualization tools and characterize their architecture and features; (3) Identify commonalities among approaches applied to different data types; and (4) Describe tool usability evaluation efforts and barriers to the adoption of such tools. Methods We identified articles published in English from January 1, 1980 to June 30, 2013 from five bibliographic databases. Articles with a primary focus on infectious disease visualization tools, needs of public health users, or usability of information visualizations were included in the review. Results A total of 88 articles met our inclusion criteria. Users were found to have diverse needs, preferences and uses for infectious disease visualization tools, and the existing tools are correspondingly diverse. The architecture of the tools was inconsistently described, and few tools in the review discussed the incorporation of usability studies or plans for dissemination. Many studies identified concerns regarding data sharing, confidentiality and quality. Existing tools offer a range of features and functions that allow users to explore, analyze, and visualize their data, but the tools are often for siloed applications. Commonly cited barriers to widespread adoption included lack of organizational support, access issues, and misconceptions about tool use. Discussion and Conclusion As the volume and complexity of infectious disease data increases, public health professionals must synthesize highly disparate data to facilitate communication with the public and inform decisions regarding measures to protect the public's health. Our review identified several themes: consideration of users' needs, preferences, and computer literacy; integration of tools into routine workflow; complications associated with understanding and use of visualizations; and the role of user trust and organizational support in the adoption of these tools. Interoperability also emerged as a prominent theme, highlighting challenges associated with the increasingly collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of infectious disease control and prevention. Future work should address methods for representing uncertainty and missing data to avoid misleading users as well as strategies to minimize cognitive overload.

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“…A Health Information Exchange (HIE) provides a secure, interoperable infrastructure for electronically moving clinical data between heterogeneous health information systems and its stakeholders, including public health. Participation in a HIE presents the opportunity to support public health workers engaged in disease surveillance (3–6); however, it is unclear how the public health practice need for HIE data can best be understood and expressed to HIE organizations and stakeholders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Health Practice within a Health Information Exchange: Information Needs and Barriers to Disease Surveillance

Reeder

Revere²,

Hills³

et al. 2012

OJPHI

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Introduction:Public health professionals engage in frequent exchange of health information while pursuing the objectives of protecting and improving population health. Yet, there has been little study of the information work of public health workers with regard to information exchange. Our objective was to gain a better understanding of information work at a local health jurisdiction before and during the early stages of participation in a regional Health Information Exchange.Methods:We investigated the information work of public health workers engaged in disease surveillance activities at a medium-sized local health jurisdiction by conducting semi-structured interviews and thematically analyzing interview transcripts.Results:Analysis of the information work of public health workers revealed barriers in the following areas: information system usability; data timeliness, accuracy and completeness; and social interaction with clients. We illustrate these barriers by focusing on the work of epidemiologists.Conclusion:Characterizing information work and barriers to information exchange for public health workers should be part of early system design efforts. A comprehensive understanding of the information practice of public health workers will inform the design of systems that better support public health work.

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Biosurveillance, Case Reporting, and Decision Support: Public Health Interactions with a Health Information Exchange

Cited by 12 publications

References 1 publication

Applying the XForms Standard to Public Health Case Reporting and Alerting

Applying the XForms Standard to Public Health Case Reporting and Alerting

Visualization and analytics tools for infectious disease epidemiology: A systematic review

Public Health Practice within a Health Information Exchange: Information Needs and Barriers to Disease Surveillance

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