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CDC Leverages Technology to Prepare for H1N1 Pandemic
In anticipation of an H1N1 influenza pandemic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are leveraging technology to improve the speed and efficiency with which data regarding the virus is collected, Federal Computer Week reports. On September 1, the CDC began using the National Health Information Network to securely gather and exchange flu symptom data, including clinical information on patients' symptoms, lab results, geographic information, age and gender, stripped of all personally identifiable information, from health care providers in Indiana, New York and Washington state. Although the project currently includes just three states, if it proves successful, it could be expanded to include more states and data on more diseases. Meanwhile, the CDC worked with health IT vendor Cerner and its network of lab, physician and hospital clients, to establish a national electronic H1N1 tracking system. Heralded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a new model for disease monitoring, the system receives data from approximately 1,000 network participants to identify "hot spots" of flu activity to guide future preparedness efforts. The data is then shared daily with the CDC. Although the program is aimed at H1N1, it can be expanded to include additional diseases or health events, such as negative reactions to vaccines. Finally, the CDC is also collecting data provided by the GeoSentinel global flu and disease tracking system at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Specifically, the GeoSentinel system connects 48 clinics worldwide to track emerging diseases, including H1N1, based on where a patient was located when they first became sick, rather than where they live. The co-director of GeoSentinel notes that gathering the data will help determine which countries have high transmission rates and could potentially be driving disease rates in other areas (Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, 10/21/09).