![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.jpg)
BACKGROUND: Meaningful Use, the federal incentive program for electronic health record uptake, has mobilized the exchange of HL7-compliant health data for syndromic surveillance. The first step in using syndromic surveillance is the onboarding of eligible facilities. However, the technical requirements for these new data streams supersede previous data streams and onboarding new syndromic submitters is often a complex process. A variety of resources exist to address specific gaps in the onboarding process. The objective of this study was to review jurisdictional and national resources which are available to public health authorities for use in the syndromic surveillance onboarding process.
METHODS: The BioSense Community Forum Onboarding Library, International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) Community Forum, and BioSense Use Community Nexus were identified as national resources for syndromic onboarding. Resources available on each of these sites were reviewed and summarized. A search was conducted using the search terms “syndromic surveillance onboarding process” for each of the 59 public health jurisdictions funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Preparedness to identify onboarding process documents created by individual public health jurisdictions.
RESULTS: All national sites had a syndromic program web presence, but while these sites included some overview of specific onboarding processes they did not specify best practices for onboarding. Available tools on these sites included generalized resources on the transmission of data to BioSense, granting data access, Meaningful Use, BioSense features, and joining, sharing data within, and transitioning to BioSense 2.0; discussion forums; notes from monthly meetings; and R scripts. While the majority of jurisdictions had some onboarding web presence, the resources available ranged from basic descriptions of onboarding within the meaningful use context to detailed process documents. Eleven jurisdictions (19%) had detailed onboarding process documents easily accessible by web-search. Documents available on the jurisdiction’s site were almost never shared on a national forum.
CONCLUSIONS: There are a wide variety of resources available online to inform the onboarding process. However, not all jurisdictions may post their documentation online. Compiling these resources in one accessible location or creating a directory would help facilitate access to these materials. Efforts should be made to encourage information sharing on a national platform. By compiling resources and documenting context of onboarding processes, there is the potential to meet the specific needs of all jurisdictions participating in syndromic surveillance.