Key Objectives:
At the conclusion of this roundtable, participants will understand the collaborative efforts between Kansas, Utah, Southern Nevada, and Tarrant County, Texas and the steps being taken to build the EpiTrax Community Consortium.
Brief Summary:
EpiTrax (formerly known as TriSano) is an open source disease surveillance system that was developed by the Utah Department of Health in 2009 and subsequently adopted by the Southern Nevada Health District in 2010 and Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2012. The jurisdictions, plus Tarrant County Public Health Department in Texas (which is currently implementing EpiTrax), entered into the EpiTrax Community Consortium (ECC) in 2015. The goal of the Consortium is to develop a mutually beneficial working relationship to leverage shared financial and human resources and collaborate regarding joint design, development, implementation, and maintenance of EpiTrax. Each participating jurisdiction implemented EpiTrax across agency programs and changed workflow as needed. Meetings were initially held quarterly. With collaborating on a new release of EpiTrax, the ECC has been meeting monthly and having biannual in-person, peer-to-peer meetings beginning in 2014. At the most recent peer-to-peer meeting in October 2015, the governing structure and function of the Consortium was determined. The roles and responsibilities of the members were defined; each jurisdiction agreed to contribute human resources to the ECC. Utah became the technical lead, and Kansas took on the responsibility for administration. A formal working relationship among the jurisdictions was put in place to support, maintain, and enhance the EpiTrax application. The ECC came to consensus on the features to be included in new releases that will occur biannually. Each jurisdiction assessed what features are essential to their workflow, and then worked together to determine the overall priority. The ECC is dedicated to making the Consortium work long-term. A charter is in the final stages of development. The ECC will collaborate to determine what bug fixes and enhancements are needed to keep EpiTrax operating effectively. Enhancements will be made so the system remains modern and up-to-date with emerging technologies and user-friendly functionality.