Mississippi's Innovative Future: Transforming Health Data

Mississippi, like many other states, recognized the limitations that their multiple existing, fragmented, disease surveillance systems posed.  Mississippi also recognized the importance of accelerating the adoption of standards-based electronic reporting to public health using informatics tools and practices  To address these issues: 1) an RFP was issued to secure a qualified vendor to provide an integrated software solution and implementation services for a comprehensive, statewide Mississippi Immunization and Disease Surveillance System (MIDSS); and, 2) an innovative plan to deploy a data brokering/integration software system to dozens of state provider sites was launched.  These software systems will collect, transform and transport health and other mandated data securely to authorized state agencies.  Mississippi is already using this industry-leading data integration tool because they are a part of a CDC-led national program that has been successfully deployed in many states.
The new MIDSS will modify an existing, fully operational Electronic Disease Surveillance System (EDSS) and Immunization System deployed in another state, thereby creating an integrated system to be used by the MSDH.  This system’s unique design allows the MSDH to meet the MIDSS project requirements by modifying a fully operational, flexible and easy to use system other clients have successfully implemented. This application will automatically exchange information between MSDH systems and other public health partners in compliance with current CDC PHIN Requirements.
Finally, Mississippi previously lacked the central infrastructure for hospital discharge data storage and distribution.  By deploying the data brokering/integration software, MSDH will leverage existing data flows from hospital automated systems as a cost-effective way to gather detailed data on hospital utilization. This innovative plan will receive standards-based data from multiple hospitals, avoiding the burden of isolated reporting systems.