End-to-End Case Reporting and the Public Health Community Platform

Key Objectives:
To provide an update to CSTE members on progress of the Public Health Community Platform (PHCP) and discuss its role in advancing the development of end-to-end electronic case reporting.

Brief Summary:
The current state of public health information systems is fragmented and unable to meet the complex challenges involved in electronic health data exchange with clinical care providers and other partners. The Public Health Community Platform (PHCP) is a community-owned and community-developed project that aims to provide a shared space for collaboration among public health jurisdictions and their partners. The PHCP will provide a shared infrastructure for state and local jurisdictions, enabling the development of interoperable systems, distributed analytic methods, and other services. PHCP work is coordinated by ASTHO with support from the CDC and directed by a Steering Committee comprised of representatives from the public health community, including CSTE and other associations. The PHCP is currently developing three pilots to demonstrate the platform’s ability to meet priority public health needs: end-to-end electronic case reporting, an immunization information hub, and tools for data analysis and visualization. Case reporting is a complex process that involves many actors, including clinicians, EHR vendors, public health vendors, federal partners, and jurisdictional public health authorities. As an organizational and technical environment for collaboration among these actors, the platform is uniquely positioned to help advance the concept of end-to-end case reporting. The PHCP is expanding a demonstrated proof-of-concept into a pilot for triggering reportable disease notifications. It is also coordinating with other nationally-funded efforts in this arena and evaluating and identifying components of end-to-end case reporting that need to be developed or defined to promote a comprehensive model of the process to inform future PHCP development work. This session will provide an update on progress of the PHCP overall and focus specifically on the end-to-end case reporting pilot. The session will also include a discussion with CSTE members about the PHCP’s role in electronic case reporting and plans for future development.