Disseminating public health practice guidelines in electronic medical record systems

An evaluation of public health practice guidelines published by CDC was conducted to determine the feasibility of disseminating them through electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Of 1,069 guidelines evaluated, 360 contained at least one recommendation that could be presented as an alert or reminder to the clinician during the patient encounter. These guidelines were in the areas of: HIV (59), sexually transmitted diseases (8), health care associated infections (14), tuberculosis (TB) (25), immunizations/vaccine-preventable diseases (80), other infectious diseases (134), reproductive health diseases (8), cancers (9), diabetes (5), and other chronic diseases (18). Further efforts to disseminate CDC guidelines through EMR systems are in progress.