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BACKGROUND: Public health decision makers need information that is comprehensive, timely and of high quality. In 2014, CDC launched the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) Modernization Initiative (NMI) to increase the robustness of the NNDSS technological infrastructure so it is based on interoperable, standardized data and exchange mechanisms. The Message Validation, Processing and Provisioning System (MVPS) is part of the proposed CDC Platform of services. The planned MVPS provides the infrastructure to receive NNDSS messages sent by public health jurisdictions, apply appropriate business rules, provide a dashboard that allow submitters to identify problems, and deliver the data to CDC programs for analysis.
METHODS: Requirements gathered from CDC programs and experience gained from the implementation of the first set of HL7-based message guides identified the need for 1) an interface for jurisdictions to test new disease-specific messages before submitting them, 2) the ability for submitters and programs to identify which cases were incorporated into MMWR statistics and the reason that cases were excluded, 3) efficient and high volume processing of incoming records, and 4) access to all submitted NND records and data elements by the related CDC program. Because jurisdictions will begin submitting data in the new message formats on different schedules, the strategy must ensure program access to data sent through legacy messages and the new messages.
RESULTS: The first year saw implementation of the Message Evaluation and Testing Service (METS), allowing jurisdictions to test their messages during development. Notifications processed through MVPS will be displayed in a dashboard, providing submitters and CDC programs the ability to review submissions, reasons that records did not meet NNDSS print criteria, and view other potential problems in the records. The identified transition strategy provides programs access to all their data through the MVPS once any state begins transmitting data through the new message format. A plan is in place to replace hardware and software components of MVPS that are not sufficiently robust to meet demands.
CONCLUSIONS: MVPS provides the infrastructure needed to receive, process and provision standards based NNDSS messages. The new functionality provides more transparency into data processing and provisioning, offering jurisdictions the opportunity to identify and resolve data problems and allowing CDC programs more confidence in the data and more timely and complete access for public health analysis.