Listening to Your Users: Use of the Common Ground Experience in the Requirements Development of An Outbreak Management Solution

Given recent national outbreaks and the ongoing occurrences of localized outbreaks, the need to better manage these incidents is more important than ever.  Current information systems largely do not meet the needs of public health, especially with regard to the information sharing that occurs between programs and jurisdictions.  Using the PHIN gap analysis as a catalyst, an outbreak management project was prioritized as part of the informatics portfolio in the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Office of Science Project Management Office (OS-PMO).

Given the cross-cutting nature of outbreaks, an innovative and collaborative methodology to define information system requirements was desired.  Through NYSDOH’s work in the Common Ground project, a preparedness model and techniques in business process analysis were applied to this project.  The model was used to help define the scope of the work, while context diagrams and task flows were used to describe the work done during outbreaks across multiple programs and jurisdictions.

Through the use of the methodology, it was determined that a set of common requirements existed to address the overarching gaps in communication and coordination during an outbreak incident.  Since public health departments largely perform the same tasks to manage outbreaks, the methodology and the project artifacts can be used by other state and local jurisdictions as best practices for their process improvement efforts.

In addition, the preparedness model has been used to align this project with related informatics projects in the areas of countermeasure response and administration and health information exchange.  The methodology itself has been incorporated into the standard practices of the OS-PMO and many local health departments in New York have been trained in the use of the tools.