Learning to design new systems: communicable disease surveillance

Area of Science:

• Public Health Surveillance
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Health Information Systems

Background:

• Current public health surveillance systems face scrutiny regarding their effectiveness.
• Existing communicable disease surveillance in New Jersey exhibited significant limitations.
• Challenges included difficulty in identifying unusual disease patterns and emerging infections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the deficiencies within the New Jersey communicable disease surveillance system.
• To propose and describe an alternative approach for communicable disease surveillance.
• To highlight the potential for improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness in public health surveillance.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the existing New Jersey communicable disease surveillance system.
• Development and description of a novel surveillance strategy utilizing hospital laboratory isolate data.
• Evaluation of the potential benefits of incorporating prior management experience.

Main Results:

• The New Jersey system demonstrated an inability to discriminate unusual disease patterns.
• Prolonged processing times, high costs, and a lack of capability to identify emerging infections were identified.
• A hospital laboratory isolate-based reporting system was proposed as a more effective alternative.

Conclusions:

• The current communicable disease surveillance system in New Jersey is inadequate.
• A hospital laboratory isolate-based reporting system offers a promising solution for enhanced surveillance.
• Leveraging past management experiences could optimize future public health information system projects.