Lecture 2: Data Collection and Informatics Flashcards
Intended use of surveillance systems
- Monitor many determinants of health
- Oldest systems monitor infectious diseases
- increasingly monitoring overall indicators of population health
Systems for monitoring and detecting disease outbreaks
- Traditional reporting (lab reports and disease reporting)
- Professional and personal connections
- Syndromic Surveillance
Four basic tenets of a surveillance system
- incorporating common data elements
- maximizing appropriate timeliness of data collection
- ensure accessibility to appropriate partners
- establishing flexibility for future enhancements
Cooperation is an important aspect of PH surveillance. Who s responsible for providing the reports?
HCPs and Labs
Cooperation is an important aspect of PH surveillance. Who s responsible for processing the reports?
DOH staff
Cooperation is an important aspect of PH surveillance. Who s responsible for using the information for action?
Public health program managers and HCPs
Main areas of surveillance data usage
- Detection (anomalies, outbreaks)
- Periodic data dissemination (to evaluate program efforts)
- Archival information storage (to document evolving health status of population)
- Application of PH protection
Classification of cases by degree of suspicion
- Confirmed
- Probable
- Suspect
- Possible
- Non-case
- Insufficient information
Other Units of surveillance besides case of disease
- test results
- exposure to environmental factor
- practice of certain behavior
- clinical signs and symptoms
- presence of genetic marker
Sentinel surveillance
a specific set of healthcare providers or labs, for example, agree to conduct surveillance for a specific condition for a specific timeframe
Duration of data collection
usually indefinite (ex. influenza data is collected frequently during flu season, but no so much afterward)
Examples of Active surveillance
- review of emergency department logs
- routine queries of labs or review of lab records
Examples of Passive surveillance
- lab reporting
- provider reporting
- ex of when this is used (clinical case reporting of TB by clinicians because no positive lab result is found)
- Passive surveillance ends up being more cost-effective than Active
- Limitations (relies too much on providers, incomplete reporting, not easily enforceable)
Sources of data (Administrative data)
Data generated in the process of administering an activity or providing a service (ex. hospital admission logs , hospital discharge data, pharmacy sales data, or health care claims data)
-More concrete examples are: Medicare, Medicaid, national health care surveys
What is SPARCS?
Statewide planning and Research Cooperative System (a form of hospital discharge data, has info on diagnosis, procedure, age, insurance status, address, race)
-used at DOH to: track priority conditions and program planning, address disparities and neighborhood health profiles, but NOT for monitoring quality of inpatient care.
Sources of data (non-electronic)
- Surveys (assesses prevalence of health conditions and risk, monitors changes over time, assess knowledge, attitudes and practices)
- Person (interview/survey of affected individual)
- Provider (astute clinician calls)
Sources of data (electronic)
-electronic lab info systems
-e health records
-admin data systems
-additional health info systems
-non-traditional electronic data sources
-vital records
disease registries
Issues with e data storage and sharing
- how will data be collected
- where will data be stored (servers)
- how will data be shared with other entities?
Procedures for data access
- data collection occurs at the local level
- data sharing protocols need to be in place
Data quality
- systemic analysis needs to be in place to identify errors caused by data entry
- unique identifiers
- standardized vocabularies
What does HIPPA do?
Protects the privacy of identifiable health information (PH agencies like DOH are exempt, but providers and labs have to report)
What information is confidential?
- Any health or medical information that can identify or be linked to a specific individual
- Privileged information (ex: a specific school where DOH may be conducting investigation)
Sharing Confidential Info
- Info should NOT be shared without patient consent
- Exceptions are: protection of ph, mandated TB control activities, patient access to medical record, sharing with other facilities, criminal activity
- Data transmission (use encrypted emails or secure FTP sites)
What is PH Informatics?
- Focuses on the systematic use of info theories and communication technologies to enhance performance of public health practice
- informatics does not equal information technology (IT)
