Leveraging Informatics to Identify Reportable Cases: Pilot Findings on Electronic Case Reporting of Chlamydia and...

Area of Science:

• Public Health Informatics
• Infectious Disease Surveillance
• Health Information Technology

Background:

• Traditional paper-based case reporting for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is often time-consuming and prone to delays.
• Existing health information technologies offer potential for automating case detection and reporting.
• Standardized electronic case reporting (eCR) guidance is crucial for effective STI surveillance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate consensus-based technical guidance for eCR of STIs within existing health information systems.
• To assess the automated detection of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases using diagnosis and laboratory codes.
• To compare the effectiveness of eCR with traditional paper-based reporting methods.

Main Methods:

• Implemented eCR logic within health information technologies to identify chlamydia and gonorrhea cases.
• Evaluated the system using 12,420 ambulatory encounters from 8 Chicago-area community health centers (May-June 2017).
• Compared eCR-identified cases with manually reported paper cases and analyzed data matching.

Main Results:

• Electronic case reporting significantly increased provider reporting rates compared to paper reporting alone.
• The automated detection logic successfully identified cases based on diagnostic and laboratory data.
• eCR demonstrated potential for improved reporting timeliness and data completeness.

Conclusions:

• Electronic case reporting is a viable and effective method for improving STI surveillance.
• Widespread adoption of eCR can reduce the burden on providers and public health agencies.
• Further collaboration is needed to optimize eCR systems for enhanced public health response.