Reverse Engineering of a Public Health Surveillance System

Learning Objectives: The poster will educate readers on a Public Health Informatics effort of Reverse Engineering (RE) on a public health surveillance system.  There will be a focus on what RE is, why it may be pursued, and how it is beneficial.

Background: RE can be described as developing an abstraction of a system by the meticulous process of dissecting all components of its design and behavior.  It may be pursued on a system for: Replacing lost or incomplete documentation; determining interoperability; preparing for a redesign; pursuing security auditing; increasing knowledgebase.

Objective: To describe an RE approach implemented on the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Reproductive Health, Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a surveillance system that monitors maternal behavior before, during and after pregnancy.  By describing the RE approach on PRAMS, readers will understand: what RE is, why it may be pursued, and how it is beneficial.  

Method: Reasons for pursuing RE on PRAMS were identified; an approach was mapped-out; PRAMS systems and processes were analyzed independently, and in relation to each other; technical and business specifics on PRAMS components were accumulated.

Result:  PRAMS detailed and cohesive system and process documentation is developed. This is a major achievement for PRAMS which has been in existence since 1987 and has gone through immense change.  Additionally, decisions towards its evolution will be influenced by the outcomes of RE.

Conclusion: RE offers a structured approach to dissecting systems and processes.  It allows the opportunity to gather detailed information that in turn is used towards developing high level documentation, understandable to the common reader.  The outcome of RE is valuable towards a range of pursuits, that ultimately credit the systems of focus.