This blog on public health informatics was triggered by a recent press release that Science Applications International (SAIC) has been awarded a $27.6 million contract to support the CDC in the design, development and implementation of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) Program Area Modules (PAMs) and CDC Area Modules (CAMs). The NEDSS project is CDC's public health initiative to provide a standards-based, integrated approach to disease surveillance in state and local public health departments. A key objective for NEDSS is to improve the nation's ability to identify and track emerging infectious diseases, investigate outbreaks, and to monitor disease trends. The PAMs are disease specific and designed to run at health departments nationwide, with or without the NEDSS Base System. Modules for tuberculosis, varicella, and lead poisoning will be the first PAMs released by the CDC. CAMs are designed to reside at the CDC as part of the CDC external Web presence. Bold face emphasis is mine.
So here we have a contract between the CDC and SAIC for software to be developed and deployed in the various state health departments (PAMs) and at the CDC (CAMs). Pressure for such a nation-wide public health surveillance system has obviously been on the front-burner since 9/11 because of the need for early detection of bioterrorism. Needless to say, there has been, and will continue to be, pressure on hospital and reference labs to become more closely linked and integrated into such a national system. The first signs of a bioterrorism attack may well be detected in hospital emergency departments, perhaps by syndromic surveillance computer programs. Germane to this, check out syndromic.org. Mandatory infectious disease electronic reporting to state public health labs and authorities will undoubtedly occupy more and more of our time and energy in the months ahead.
CSC has also collaborated with the CDC in the past to develop and build-out of NEDSS. Here is a cut-and-paste from the CSC web site about this topic (emphasis mine):
The NEDSS initiative was officially born in 1998. Late in 2000, CDC contracted with CSC to lead development of a NEDSS-compatible Base System to be offered to state health departments and eventually to other organizations. The NEDSS Base System (NBS) enables data entry via the Web, electronic interchange of laboratory data, and an integrated data repository for data pertaining to multiple diseases. An important part of the NEDSS initiative is the propagation of standards for public health information systems, including a push to use industry data standards whenever possible. These standards mean that many systems, not just the Base System (whose use by states is optional), will interface with NEDSS.
More on this very juicy and relevant topic later.
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