Cross Jurisdictional Case Notification & Disease Surveillance

Eleven local and two state health agencies serving approximately 2 million inhabitants in the bi-state Kansas City metropolitan area are working together under the auspices of the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) to design a regional public health information management system. The new system will improve the transfer of disease reports among local agencies, enable regional disease surveillance, and facilitate the early detection of disease outbreaks and use of the data for epidemiologic investigations and subsequent informed public response.  Currently, local health epidemiologists must fax and phone their counterparts across the metro area numerous times daily to share disease reports routed to the wrong local health agency. Furthermore, local health agencies cannot get a regional picture of new disease reports in a timely way. This new system will allow for electronic report transfer and allow for visibility of multiple cases with similar disease conditions. The new system will maintain the security of state data systems, while allowing local agencies to share data across jurisdiction and across the state line. This data sharing will enable real-time regional disease surveillance and maximize opportunities for the early identification of disease outbreaks. The system will not only facilitate cross border case management but will integrate electronically with the state NEDSS based systems in two states. The session will demonstrate the functionality of this technology solution, outline the data sharing agreements needed for its implementation, describe the planning process used to gain support among the local and state agencies, and outline the next steps toward implementation. This system’s design and the planning process undertaken by the Kansas City region will be of interest to other local and state health agencies desiring to improve the transfer of disease report information and the ability to analyze disease conditions across a region. System design will meet PHIN standards.