David and Goliath, Collaborative Public Health Efforts Verses Traditional Vendor Approaches

Background: The PRISM project addressed the expanding technology and business automation needs of a modern infectious disease prevention and control program.  The Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of STD designed and implemented an application that brought business intelligence into workflow automation, modernized communication capability, expanded access to required related medical information through interoperability, and introduced an “open source” approach to collaborate with other governmental and public health entities as an innovation to reduce costs while expanding functionality.

Objectives: To improve STD applications thorough collaborative development efforts that provide cost savings and improved user acceptance.

Methods: Florida’s PRISM effort sought to replace its STD*MIS application with a modern application that enabled the incorporation of available functions and integration with mission critical data sources to improve operational efficiencies.  This effort was undertaken with a philosophy of using a modified version of the open source approach that would enable use by any public health program, without cost, under a GPL (general public license). 

Results: Sharing the modifications, enhancements, and open code has provided a solid example of the value of modified open source approaches and opportunities it presents to public health informatics.  Florida’s PRISM application is now utilized in other STD jurisdictions.

Conclusions: This effort provides an example of the possibilities and benefits of collaborative public health informatics efforts.

Implications for Programs, Policy, and/or Research:Benefits to collaborative development and open sharing between jurisdictions should be strongly considered in future technology decisions.