Developing EHR Standards, Improving Public Health: SDC Initiative

Since the inception of electronic health records (EHRs) both developers and users have struggled with balancing EHRs’ ability to gather and provide information with their lack of interoperability. EHRs are effective tools for clinicians who want easy access to health information from patient visits, but at present they have inefficiencies that decrease their usefulness for public health. More specifically, public health would benefit from a template that delivered all EHR information in a consistent manner, with consistent data elements (i.e., patient visit information). Standardization is especially important to data quality as Meaningful Use policies continue to expand the volume of data available to public health.

Structured data has the ability to increase public health’s ability to use, analyze, and disseminate information on events of public health interest or concern. In order to capitalize on this potential, the S&I Framework started the Structured Data Capture (SDC) Initiative in January 2013. Through engaging stakeholders and consulting experts, this initiative aims to develop standards for storing data which could then be passed on to public health within standardized templates. The SDC Initiative specifically aims to create standards for four types of reports: electronic case report form; incident report; surveillance case report; and the collection of patient information used for Determination of Coverage.

The development of these standards is community-driven and open to anyone with interest. The SDC Initiative engages stakeholders in a variety of ways, from weekly meetings to presentations from experts working on data standardization in both research and practice. Development of these standards is participatory and committed members of the initiative can vote on project materials.   

Currently, the initiative is working on finalizing a variety of use cases. Once this step is complete, guidance documents for standards will be created and pilot projects instituted. There is still substantial opportunity for interested ISDS community members to contribute to this project before it wraps up in August 2013. 

The next open teleconference is scheduled for Thursday, April 11, 3:30-5 pm EDT.

For more information on the S&I Framework’s Structured Data Capture Initiative, or to get involved as a member, please visit: http://wiki.siframework.org/Structured+Data+Capture+Charter+and+Members

Written by: Becky Zwickl, MPH, Policy Analyst, ISDS

WHO Releases Interim Epi Surveillance Standards for Flu

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released Interim Global Epidemiological Surveillance Standards for Influenza for review and comment until October 31, 2012. This document contains the WHO interim global standards for influenza surveillance that have been created over the course of the last two years. Various groups have played a role in the development of these standards from around the world, each brining a unique perspective to key surveillance issues. 


A WHO Working Group on Global Influenza Surveillance Standards was assembled, convening experts from all six WHO regions. Additionally, in March of 2011, a Global Consultation on Influenza Surveillance Standards was held in Geneva. This consultation brought together epidemiologists and surveillance officers from 35 countries from all six WHO regions, each of the WHO regional offices, as well as representation from PATH, US CDC, ECDC, and WHO HQ. 


Input from this meeting provided the basis for the initial drafts of the influenza surveillance standards document. The drafts were circulated further through various groups such as the WHO Epidemiological Network, the working group, and other advisors for feedback and comments from February to April of 2012. The feedback received from the current release of the document, the interim standards, will help direct the final version, which will be produced after the comment period that ends on October 31, 2012. 


The WHO now invites you to join this process and submit your own feedback on the interim standards.

View the WHO Interim Global Epidemiological Surveillance Standards for Influenza
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