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BACKGROUND: The reportable conditions system is a cornerstone of public health surveillance. Accurate, timely and complete reporting of reportable conditions depends on reporters having correct and current information about the “who, what, when, where, and how” of reporting. Automated detection and electronic reporting depends on having this information available in machine-processable form. Currently, this information is fragmented and difficult even for humans to use; it is rarely presented in a manner suitable for machine processing. At its conclusion in 2012, the CDC/CSTE ELR Task Force prioritized collaborative development of the Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System (RCKMS) as a next step to strengthen disease surveillance in the United States.
METHODS: The RCKMS is under development, with a production release target in late 2014. The RCKMS is a single, comprehensive, authoritative, real-time portal to reportable conditions information; it is not a monolith, but rather a federation of knowledge resources that appears to a human user, or to an information system, to be a single entity. Development is funded by CDC; design and development is guided by a collaborative with leadership from CSTE, CDC, APHL and other public health, health care delivery, and health information technology stakeholders.
RESULTS: An RCKMS pilot has been built, which includes knowledge associated with selected reportable conditions, both base content (derived from CSTE position statements) and specific content for selected jurisdictions. A successful pilot test of provisioning knowledge from that system to a commercial EHR system has been conducted. Current activities include extending the base content, building the authoring interface, and refining output methods, including subscription and notification functionality and provision of knowledge to EHR systems consistent with standards being considered under Meaningful Use. This presentation will:
- review the current status of and next steps for RCKMS
- describe and provide examples of the categories of epidemiologic and informatics issues revealed by the process of converting CSTE position statements to computable content
- describe the key governance issues facing RCKMS, and proposed governance processes.
CONCLUSIONS: RCKMS will change reportable conditions reporting in the US, as well as the responsibilities and activities of CSTE. Providing -- and maintaining -- a single, comprehensive, authoritative, real-time portal to reportable conditions information presents substantial challenges, to which the public health community is rising.