METHODS: A wide variety of issues have been identified in conversations with jurisdictional representatives, which have been held in many contexts (e.g., CSTE committee calls, annual conference workshops, breakout session and roundtables, and RCKMS workgroups). Understanding of and perspectives on RCKMS vary, depending on the extent to which a jurisdiction has been a participant in those conversations, in developing RCKMS tools or in vetting RCKMS content.
RESULTS: This presentation will describe from a jurisdictional perspective the opportunities presented by RCKMS, including the ability to communicate to submitters in both human-readable and machine-processable form the requirements for both lab reporting and case reporting. The presentation will also review the current state of RCKMS and its relationship to other initiatives relevant to public health reporting.
The challenges presented to jurisdictions by RCKMS will be described, including but not limited to:
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Developing an understanding of the conceptual framework of RCKMS, including the standards on which RCKMS relies (e.g., standard terminologies)
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Developing a mastery of the RCKMS authoring software
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Creating the business processes necessary both to generate the initial jurisdictional RCKMS content, and to maintain it
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Clarifying the relationship between what the jurisdiction publishes in RCKMS and other ways the jurisdiction may have of presenting reporting requirements (especially important if discrepancies are identified)
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Communicating to reporters the exact role RCKMS plays in the reporting process for their specific jurisdiction
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Determining whether, and if so, how, national conversations toward harmonizing reporting requirements may result in changes in jurisdictional law/rule.
The current status of efforts by CSTE and its partners to address each of the challenges will be presented.
CONCLUSIONS: CSTE believes that the benefits to be derived from RCKMS outweigh the challenges that its use will present to STLT public health entities, and is working to ensure that jurisdictions can make effective use of this new tool.