The Public Health Laboratory Interoperability Project (PHLIP) Electronic Test Order and Result (ETOR) Pilot Implementation

PHLIP, co-sponsored by APHL and CDC, is now working on the Electronic Test Order and Result (ETOR) Pilot to establish the foundation for full electronic data sharing between public health laboratories and consequently their partners. Based on community-wide agreement regarding harmonization on data elements and vocabulary for test requests and linked results required for all NNDs we are designing the PHLIP ETOR HL7 profile based on HL7 v2.6 standard. The PHLIP ETOR Pilot is further constraining this profile to test and move to production with a limited number of States and the respective CCID laboratories for Salmonella and B.anthracis for the LRN assays to provide proof of concept for bi-directional electronic data exchange in public health laboratories. The communal approach will surface critical issues now, that will enable scaling to other diseases and ultimately to all other partners. PHLIP ETOR will: * Use the harmonized definitions of data elements and apply messaging requirements to these, specifically for Salmonella and B. anthracis for the pilot, and more globally for all diseases for the profile to allow consistent representation during the exchange. * Identify all of the tests requested by each of the participating laboratories and harmonization of the vocabulary for the same tests and for related results reporting as well as assigning respective standard terminology at the data element level. * Design the HL7 version 2.6 electronic test order and result message ETOR profile and develop related PHLIP deliverables including encoding guidelines and mapping workbooks. * Provide translations to other HL7 2.x versions for use with other public health laboratory partners Minimizing optionality through harmonization is essential if we are to fill this void in serving the public health needs of our nation.