Development and Assessment of a Public Health Alert Delivered through a Community Health Information Exchange

Authors

  • Roland Gamache Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute
  • Kevin C Stevens Marion County Health Department, Indiana
  • Ricardo Merriwether Regenstrief Institute
  • Brian E Dixon Regenstrief Institute
  • Shaun Grannis Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v2i2.3214

Abstract

Timely communication of information to health care providers during a public health event can improve overall response to such events. However, current methods for sending information to providers are inefficient and costly. Local health departments have traditionally used labor-intensive, mail-based processes to send public health alerts to the provider community. This article describes a novel approach for delivering public health alerts to providers by leveraging an electronic clinical messaging system within the context of a health information exchange. Alerts included notifications related to the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic, a syphilis outbreak, and local rabies exposure. We describe the process for sending electronic public health alerts and the estimated impact on efficiency and cost effectiveness. Keywords: public health alerts, health information exchange, syndromic surveillance, clinical messaging, H1N1 flu, broadcast alert

Author Biographies

Roland Gamache, Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute

Roland Gamache started as an Assistant Research Professor with the School of Medicine at Indiana University in July of 2009. Previously, he was the Director of the State Health Data Center at the Indiana State Department of Health. He worked at the Indiana State Department of Health for eighteen years. Roland?s work has focused on the application of public health data analysis in the areas of public health assessment and evaluation, policy development, data systems integration, strategic planning, quality improvement, and public health preparedness activities. He was the Director of the Public Health Preparedness Program at the ISDH for two years during this time. His recent work is in the development of integrated data systems for public health data needs. This work places an emphasis on database design for the improvement of analysis time, integration of public health systems with community-based Health Information Exchanges, and on improving the dissemination of public health information in an effort to measure and improve the health resiliency of the community. He completed his undergraduate work at the University Of Lowell, MA. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University in 1984 and an MBA from Indiana University in 1991.

Kevin C Stevens, Marion County Health Department, Indiana

Kevin C. Stevens, MPH, MA currently serves dual roles as an epidemiologist with the Marion County Health Department in Indianapolis, Indiana and as the public health informatician at Regenstrief Institute. Mr. Stevens represents MCHD as the local public health partner in the fulfillment of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contract ?Accelerating Situational Awareness through Health Information Exchange? and evaluates the quality and quantity of clinical information sent to public health. For this special issue, Mr. Stevens served as the managing editor by developing the outline, coordinating the paper writing process and managing the paper submissions.

Shaun Grannis, Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute

Shaun Grannis is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Indiana University and Medical Informatics Research Scientist at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, where his interests include developing, implementing, and studying technology to overcome the challenges of integrating data from distributed systems to support public health, clinical care, and research. Dr. Grannis received his M.D. degree from Michigan State University, an M.S. in Clinical research and Informatics from Indiana University, and has a B.S. in aerospace engineering from M.I.T.

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Published

2010-10-26

How to Cite

Gamache, R., Stevens, K. C., Merriwether, R., Dixon, B. E., & Grannis, S. (2010). Development and Assessment of a Public Health Alert Delivered through a Community Health Information Exchange. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v2i2.3214

Issue

Section

Original Articles