srikanta banerjee maia juncocanada surveillance system two canadian disease surveillance systems H e a l t h M e d i c a l
Maia Junco
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Health Informatics and Surveillance
Dr. Srikanta Banerjee
Maia Junco
Canada Surveillance System
Two Canadian disease surveillance systems of interest to you. consider the implications of EHRs for each of the systems. noting similarities and differences between the two you selected.
In order to create an effective surveillance system, a health system should have the capacity to collect information and analyze clinical data.. Since Canada uses a single payer- user health care system and most of the population is covered, the country seems to be ahead of keeping up with data for surveillance (Birtwistle and Williamson, 2015). Electronic medical records are used as primary and secondary sources of data to feed several surveillance systems and build an infrastructure around the country that assesses the populations health and improves health care. The Electronic Medical Record Administrative Data Linked Database (EMRALD) is an accurate database linked to the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario (Birtwhistle and Williamson, 2015; Mitiku, n.d) that has contributed to the evolution of surveillance systems for several diseases.
HIV/AIDS Surveillance System (HASS)
The Public health Agency (PHAC) in Canada monitors HIV through HASS , which is a passive case-based system that gathers data from all provinces. This data includes age, sex, race, ethnicity, and risk factors for HIV transmission (Haddad et all.,2019), The information is voluntarily reported by local health authorities through the National Case Report Form by paper or through electronic transmission and is analyzed epidemiologically by the PHAC (Haddad et all.,2019).
The Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS) -Alzheimer disease.
The CCDSS is a collaborative network designed for Chronic Disease surveillance systems such as theAlzheimers surveillance system, which is what I will focus on for the purpose of this posting. The surveillance system uses secondary data such as health insurance data (which represents 97% of the population), billing claims and anonymous hospital discharge abstract records (Government of Canada, 2017). . Since family physicians are the first point of contact for patients, the use of EMR is beneficial to corroborate and use data for surveillance systems at the national level. This data can be used to analyze clinical data, corroborate diagnoses, or to obtain incidence data.
Analyze the potential challenges and opportunities of using EHRs in a similar manner in your own country. Provide recommendations for how those challenges might be addressed
One limitation found by Canadian researchers and scientists with EMR reporting is the order that physicians input data. Another problem is when data is too difficult to analyze or code, such as scanned documents or encounter notes.(Mitiku et al., n.d.) In the United States (US) similar problems are found with data reporting, however, the fact that Canada has universal health care allows surveillance systems to produce more complete data that better represents the whole population. In the US, Healthcare providers are required by law to report roughly 100 different reportable communicable diseases, while chronic diseases are not. Each state has different laws and systems in place which makes it difficult to coordinate a unified national system. This is a challenge for electronic health record (EHR) reporting because the data is inconsistent. Since EHR was implemented In the US in 2016, electronic case reporting (ECR) has helped find a solution by making ECR automatic reportings mandatory for healthcare providers, it has also increased the number of minutes patients have with practitioners (Electronic Case Reporting, 2020). A Solution to data reporting problems could be a structured data entry through a better EMR system that is capable of communicating between hospitals, laboratories, imaging facilities and health departments (HL7, 2020).The modernization of the ECR reporting system for health care providers has minimized the complexities of the previous system because it is now a centralized and simple electronic initial case report (eICR) system.. Using a common coding language such as the Health Level Seven International (HL7) language for the transmission of electronic health information( HL7,2020), has been one of the best ways to improve health surveillance, especially today, as the Covid -19 Pandemic continues to spread and mutate. .
References
Birtwhistle, R.MD & Williamson, T. Primary care electronic medical records: a new data source for research in Canada. 2015 CMAJ. DOI:10.1503 /cmaj.140473
Government of Canada.2017. Dementia in Canada, including Alzheimer’s disease. Highlights from the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.14745/cc…
Health Level 7 . 2020. About. https://ecr.aimsplatform.org/ehr-implementers/
Tu, K., Mitiku, T. F., Ivers, N. M., Guo, H., Lu, H., Jaakkimainen, L., Kavanagh, D. G., Lee, D. S., & Tu, J. V. (n.d.). Evaluation of Electronic Medical Record Administrative Data Linked Database (EMRALD). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE (1), E15–E21.
2 days ago
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Compared to the United States, Canada has a comparably strong economy and level of development (Bercuson, 2021). Even in terms of biosurveillance, Canada has, like the United States, a list of federal/nationally notifiable diseases (PHAC, 2020).
Yet, Canada conceives of and finances health care very differently than its direct-most southern cousin (SSA, 2017). After weeks of studying syndromic surveillance as practiced in the United States, it behooves us all now, I think, as public health scholar-practitioners, to consider how Canada approaches some eminent modes of biosurveillance.
01. Post a brief description of each of the Canadian surveillance systems you selected.
Canada has a number of public health surveillance systems, some province-specific and others nationwide (Groot, n.d.).
The two that I shall explore are: 1) Alberta Province’s Capital Health region’s Alberta Real Time Syndromic Surveillance Net (ARTSSN), and 2) Canada’s regional Canadian Travel Medicine Network (CanTravNet).
ARTSSN
Alberta Health Services (AHS), with its ~100,000 employees, is the health agency responsible for serving Canada’s province Alberta and its approximately 4 million inhabitants (AHS, n.d.-a). The agency claims to be the Canada’s first and largest province-wide, fully-integrated health system (AHS, n.d.-a).
AHS’s Public Health Surveillance (PHS) team conducts an apparently very comprehensive and very robust surveillance (AHS PHS team, n.d.). Defining surveillance very similarly to how Lombardo and Buckeridge do (2007), AHS PHS go on to list several useful applications of surveillance, including detecting potential outbreaks, monitoring health trends, and providing a basis for epidemiologic research (AHS PHS team, n.d.). AHS PHS describes itself as a team that collaborates with internal and external partners, that supports program areas of communicable diseases, environmental health, and emergency/disaster preparedness (AHS PHS team, n.d.).
Syndromic Surveillance. The Alberta Province’s Capital Health region’s Alberta Real Time Syndromic Surveillance Net (ARTSSN) conducts syndromic surveillance for the entire Alberta province by capturing electronic data from multiple sources in real time (Talbot et al., 2007). ARTSSN makes use of four data streams (Talbot et al., 2007): 1) calls to the regional telephone health advice service, 2) emergency department visits, 3) provincial laboratory for public health reports, and 4) school absenteeism at public schools. In this practice, ARTSSN also makes use of covariates of interest (e.g., age, gender, time, geographic location, syndrome, disease) (Talbot et al., 2007). These indicators get monitored automatically, and any detected anomalies trigger an alert status, which gets sent to decision-makers for investigation or other action (Fan et al., 2010).
Depending on the user’s preference, results can get displayed as maps, graphs, or tables (Talbot et al., 2007). ARTSSN collects data from multiple data sources automatically in near-real time, and, if fully utilized, could enhance outbreak-related decision-making for Alberta province (Talbot et al., 2007). The major advantage of ARTSSN is its automation-facilitated timeliness, involving to a wide variety of health utility, including timeliness, comprehensiveness, and automation (Fan et al., 2010).
One study found that ARTSSN is useful tool in predicting influenza outbreaks (Smetanin et al., 2015), and the system continues to be used to monitor respiratory virus surveillance (AHS, n.d.-b).
Regarding, for instance, the surveillance of respiratory viruses (AHS, n.d.-b), recent-most data are available and timely (with less than 1 month lag) (AHS, 2021). The system’s digital dashboard is available publically (AHS, 2021).
CanTravNet
Travel medicine (or “emporiatrics”) is the branch medicine that pertains to the promotion of the health of international travelers (ISTM, n.d.-a; ISTM, n.d.-d). The increase in the number of international travelers and in the speed at which they travel poses significant risk of introduction of endemic diseases to non-endemic areas (Oberoi, 2014). For this reason, the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), with support from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), created GeoSentinel® – a worldwide surveillance network of travel-related disease (ISTM, n.d.-c)
The Canadian population is no exception to the those facing potential danger with regard to modern rate of internal travel. Indeed, many Canadians conduct recreational tourism to and then return from tropical or economically underdeveloped nations with infectious disease not endemic to Canada (Boggild et al., 2014b). Furthermore, ongoing political instability and armed conflict in many parts of the world increasingly cause migrants and refugees to seek asylum in Canada (Boggild et al., 2018).
And so, Canada has, in joining with GeoSentinel®, developed a disease surveillance system for travelers entering Canada: the Canadian Travel Medicine Network (CanTravNet) (ISTM, n.d.-b). CanTravNet is a network of clinics that surveil for travel-associated illnesses (ISTM, n.d.-b). This surveillance practice has highlighted the importance of educating Canadian travelers about how to avoid certain vector-borne diseases when travelling abroad (Boggild et al., 2016b; Boggild et al., 2016a; Boggild et al., 2014b) and has elucidated the spectrum of infectious diseases brought into Canada (from either returning Canadians or first-entry immigrants) (Boggild et al., 2014a).
02. Describe how EHRs are used in the two systems, noting similarities and differences between the two you selected.
ARTSSN collects electronic health records (EHRs) from most chiefly from emergency department visits and from laboratory reports (Talbot et al., 2007). It does make use of some Protected Health Information (PHI) (Talbot et al., 2007).
CanTravNet maintains a central electronic database (Hamer, n.d.). It does collect demographic information, but PHI is de-identified (Hamer, n.d.).
Both systems make use of clinical information (e.g., inpatient/outpatient, symptoms, diagnosis, underlying conditions, etc.). The two major differences are that CanTravNet includes data on previous travel history and that CanTravNet de-identifies PHI.
03. Analyze the potential challenges and opportunities of using EHRs in a similar manner in your own country.
Canada’s ARTSSN functions most analogously to any one of the United States’ state-level health departments. If Alberta is anything like my own state of Texas, the challenges and opportunities involved would have been xx. Like Alberta, Texas conducts syndromic surveillance at the state-wide level, also chiefly making use of emergency department visits and of laboratory reports (TX DSHS, n.d.).
One challenge in Texas has been data-sharing. When the federal Department of Health and Human Services surveyed Texas state’s surveillance systems in 2011, it found that Texas had at least six different systems in place being used at various places within the state, with no data-sharing between them (TX DSHS, n.d.). This was a challenge, because seven puzzle pieces that can’t be fit together can’t help to generate a meaningful picture. Since then, progress has been made on interoperability. As of 2019, only three systems existed (TX DSHS, n.d.). Most recently, there are only two systems left (TxS2 and the Houston PHR 6/5S system), with efforts still being made to integrate the system into one, state-wide system.
The previous six, incompatible systems were a challenge in Texas (and hence in USA), but the promise of finally unifying the two remaining systems into one, single system spells a great opportunity for statewide syndromic surveillance in the near future.
04. Provide recommendations for how those challenges might be addressed.
The United States should continue to direct and incentivize the furtherance of interoperability among its local and system systems for syndromic surveillance purposes. Alberta and any of the other 49 states might have different past, present, or historic challenges, but the goal of enabling compatible/interoperable, rapid/automatic data at the state-level for the purpose of state-wide syndromic surveillance should be the same for all.
References
Alberta Health Services’ Public Health Surveillance team [AHS PHS team]. Public Health Surveillance. Alberta Health Services. https:// Health Services [AHS]. (2021, January 7). Alberta Respiratory Virus Surveillance. Tableau Public. https://public.tableau.com/profile/surveillance.reporting.ahs#!/vizhome/AlbertaHealthServicesRespiratoryVirusSurveillance/Summary.
Alberta Health Services [AHS]. (n.d.-a) About AHS. Alberta Health Services. https:// Health Services [AHS]. (n.d.-b) Alberta respiratory virus surveillance update. Alberta Health Services. https:// D. J. (2021, January 12). Canada. Encyclopædia Britannica. https:// A. K., Geduld, J., Libman, M., Ward, B. J., McCarthy, A. E., Doyle, P. W., … Kai, K. C. (2014a). Travel-acquired infections and illnesses in Canadians: Surveillance report from CanTravNet surveillance data – 2009–2011. Open Medicine, 8(1), e20–e32. https:// A. K., Geduld, J., Libman, M., Ward, B. J., McCarthy, A., Hajek, J., … Kain, K. C. (2014b). Travel-acquired infections in Canada: CanTravNet – 2011—2012. Canada Communicable Disease Report, 40(16), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v40i16a01
Boggild, A. K., Geduld, J., Libman, M., Yansouni, C. P., Mccarthy, A. E., Hajek, J., … Kain, K. C. (2016a). Chikungunya in travellers returning to Canada: Surveillance report from CanTravNet surveillance data – 2006 to 2015. Official Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada, 1(3), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.3138/jammi.1.3.02
Boggild, A. K., Geduld, J., Libman, M., Yansouni, C. P., McCarthy, A. E., Hajek, J., … Kain, K. C. (2016b). Illness in Canadian travellers and migrants from Brazil: CanTravNet surveillance data – 2013–2016. Canada Communicable Disease Report, 42(8), 153–157. https://doi.org/10.14745/ccdr.v42i08a01
Boggild, A. K., Geduld, J., Libman, M., Yansouni, C. P., Mccarthy, A. E., Hajek, J., … Kain, K. C. (2018). Spectrum of illness in migrants to Canada: sentinel surveillance through CanTravNet. Journal of Travel Medicine, 26(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/tay117
Fan, S. H., Brown, A., Honish, L., Hughes, T., Jaipaul, J., Blair, C., … Nardelli, V. (2007). Enhancing public health surveillance by using multiple data sources for syndromic surveillance: The Alberta real time syndromic surveillance net. Advances in Disease Surveillance, 4(161).
Fan, S., Blair, C., Brown, A., Gabos, S., Honish, L., Hughes, T., … Talbot, J. (2010). A multi-function public health surveillance system and the lessons learned in its development: The Alberta real time syndromic surveillance net. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 101(6), 454–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03403963
Groot, E. Database of public health surveillance systems – 2016. Public Health Physicians of Canada (PHPC). (n.d.). http:// D. GeoSentinel: A surveillance network of returning travelers and migrants. ISID.org. http://isid.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/18thICID_Hamer.pdf.
International Society of Travel Medicine [ISTM]. (n.d.-a). About. The International Society of Travel Medicine. https:// Society of Travel Medicine [ISTM]. (n.d.-b). CanTravNet. The International Society of Travel Medicine. https:// Society of Travel Medicine [ISTM]. (n.d.-c). GeoSentinel. The International Society of Travel Medicine. https:// Society of Travel Medicine [ISTM]. (n.d.-d). Research Programs. The International Society of Travel Medicine. https:// J. S., & Buckeridge, D. L. (2007). Disease surveillance: A public health informatics approach. John Wiley & Sons.
2 days ago
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Select two Canadian disease surveillance systems of interest to you. Give a brief description of each of the Canadian surveillance systems you selected.
Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS) is one of the systems that I selected. It was established by the Public Health Agency of Canada in the year 2009. The CCDSS does the estimates of the prevalence of chronic diseases in their incidence and their health outcomes. This system makes use of health administrative databases that are linked to the population from all the provinces and territories. It as well uses an analytic protocol that is distributed to come up with disease estimates which are standardized (Lisa Lix, 2017).
Describe how EHRs are used in CCDSS
Three administrative databases in each province of Canada are linked to identify people with chronic diseases. Physician billing claims are linked with Registration files of Health Insurance and abstracts of hospital discharge in the provinces and territories. Since Canada has near-universal coverage data of around 97% of people is available in Registration files of Health Insurance. When literature reviews are completed and validation studies are done, expert working groups develop definitions of disease cases. Challenges that face the implementation of disease case definition are identified through feasibility studies. The Public Health Agency of Canada then develops an analytic code that is distributed to all territories. Surveys on data quality are done often to identify possible characteristics that bias estimates of disease. Data produced in each province or territory is then summarized and sent through a network for approval by Scientific Committee and Technical Committee then sent to PHAC for further analyzing and reporting (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020).
Communicable Disease Surveillance System
This system works in Canada by providing a mechanism for monitoring population health while identifying and responding to changes in reporting communicable diseases and plan for care and programs for control and prevention. The activities go from local to the national government and the focusing is on population. Physicians report the diagnosis of a notifiable disease to the local health authority. If the case meets the definition of surveillance it is officially reported to Health Authority in the Territory. Data on age and sex are sent to the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control where it is regularly included in the national analysis (Paul N. Sockett, 1996).
How it uses EHRS
Territorial and provincial Health Departments send case by case data to the Laboratory Centre for Disease control regularly using the direct transmission. Many systems have been developed for different diseases like AIDS, STDs TB. The diseases are kept on a control database where they are analyzed at the Division of Disease Surveillance and published Quarterly in the Canadian Communicable Disease Report. Texts are as well done on trends that the system provides. National data is collated, analyzed and kept in the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control (Paul N. Sockett, 1996).
Similarities and differences between the two systems
The two disease surveillance systems in Canada make use of health administrative databases that are linked to the population to do surveillance on the diseases. Reports of physicians are applied in the identification of disease cases. In the two systems, the data is collected from the lowest local health departments and reported to the higher levels up to the national levels. The cases proceed to the national levels if they meet the definition of the disease as required at the territorial and provincial levels. Unlike the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System, the Canadian Communicable Disease Surveillance system prioritizes diseases that are to be included in the national surveillance. This is because it works with timeliness to facilitate control and prevention of communicable diseases (Paul N. Sockett, 1996).
In the CCDS data is kept in the Laboratory Centre for Disease control before it is taken to the national level for analysis unlike in the CCDSS where data from the provincial and territorial levels is directly taken to the national levels for analysis and reporting (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020).
Analyze the potential challenges and opportunities of using EHRS in a similar manner in your own country and recommendations for how these challenges might be addressed.
Electronic Health Records provide estimates of the burden that a disease is likely to cause to the population. Its use in America will help the government to have the required information on diseases to make policies and do early financing for public health programs in the country. The use of EHRs is also likely to improve the outcomes of population health in the country. Data that is collected can be shared across many health care organizations and be used to improve the quality and prevent further spread of diseases. It will also provide data that will be used to develop and maintain population Health Records in the country (Daniel J. Friedman, 2013).
The challenge of using Electronic Health Records in Disease surveillance in America is that high-cost applies in the implementation of Health Care technology. Running of electronic disease surveillance systems in all levels of health requires coordination of information from these levels to the national levels. There are organizational challenges that are likely to occur at different levels as a result of the lack of skilled personnel to run the systems. I would recommend that organizational challenges be addressed and coming up with good approaches to the development of Electronic Health Records. The government should allocate enough funds to the department of health to make the surveillance of diseases easy and timely to improve health (Janett, 2020).
References
Daniel J. Friedman, R. G. (2013, September). Electronic Health Records and US Public Health: Current Realities and Future Promise. Retrieved from PMC: 2 days ago
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Post a brief description of each of the Canadian surveillance systems you selected.
The two Canadian surveillance systems that I will discuss are the Blood Safety Contribution Program (BSCP) and the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS). The Blood Safety Contribution Program (BSCP) supports the development and/or enhancement of provincial and territorial systems to monitor errors and adverse events associated with the transfusion of blood components and blood products and the transplantation of cells, tissue and organs (Canada, 2020). The Blood Safety Contribution Program is made up of three other surveillance systems. The BSCP consist of the Transfusion Error Surveillance System (TESS), the Transfusion Transmitted Injuries Surveillance System (TTISS) and the Cells, Tissues and Organs Surveillance System (CTOSS). The Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System uses linked administrative data sources from every province and territory to estimate the incidence and prevalence of chronic conditions. As well as all-cause mortality among Canadian with and without these conditions and use of health services (Canada, 2020).
Describe how EHRs are used in the two systems, noting similarities and differences between the two you selected.
Electronic health records (EHRs) provide the opportunity to improve both clinical care and public health through advances in evidence-based medicine and evidenced-based public health (Lombardo & Buckeridge, 2007). The Blood Safety Contribution Program uses electronic health records to report data from all provinces and territories, which consist of all surveillance data, surveillance reports, guidance documents and presentations for meetings and conferences. The Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance uses electronic health records so that data can be “disaggregated by age, sex, age groups and province or territory” (Canada, 2020). The different in the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System is that it tries to use patient’s data to make sure that the patient’s privacy is protected. The Blood Safety Contribution Program, uses data that is “cleansed, validated, analyzed and reported at a national-level and made available to recipients and other stakeholders” (Canada, 2020). The two surveillance systems are similar in that they both used electronic health records to measure data in all of the provinces and territories in Canada. The systems are also similar in that they use information from all levels of the public health spectrum.
Analyze the potential challenges and opportunities of using EHRs in a similar manner in your own country. Provide recommendations for how those challenges might be addressed.
The potential challenges of using electronic health records in a similar way that the Canadians use is that the United States has a bigger population than Canada. The opportunities of using electronic health records as the Canadians would comparing ways to make sure that the patient’s privacy is being protected, learning how to compile data that come from many different sources, and being able to distribute data by using the electronic health records. Another challenge, of using electronic health records is the cost. I would recommend that the challenge of cost be addressed by having the local and state levels of government be responsible for paying for electronic health records before mering with the national level of government.
References
Canada, P. (2020, November 18). Government of Canada. Retrieved January 14, 2021, from REPLY QUOTE EMAIL AUTHOR
2 days ago
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Brief description of the two Canadian surveillance systems selected
The first surveillance system is the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP). CPSP was created in 1996 to improve the health of children and youth through national surveillance and research of childhood conditions that present high incidences of disability, morbidity, and economic costs to society, even though they are low in occurrence (Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program [CPSP], n.d.). To carry out this surveillance activity, CPSP collects data monthly from more than 2,500 pediatricians and pediatric specialists to monitor rare diseases and conditions in children (CPSP, n.d.). The second surveillance system is the Opioid and Stimulant-related Harms Surveillance System, was developed to understand and respond effectively to the overdose crisis in Canada (Government of Canada, 2020). Each providence and territory gather, analyzes, and disseminates data on opioid and stimulant-related deaths, hospitalizations, and suspected overdoses treated by Emergency Medical Services (Government of Canada, 2020).
Describe how EHRs are used in the two systems, noting similarities and differences between the two
EHRs are developed to go beyond a single organization to collect and compile information to share with many organizations like providers, labs, and others (Garrett & Seidman, 2011). EHRs help with advancing evidence-based medical care and evidence-based public health (Lombardo & Buckeridge, 2007). The CPSP uses a two-tier process to gather and report information on childhood conditions, and they include the initial reporting and detailed reporting. In initial reporting, a reporting form is mailed or emailed monthly to pediatricians and specialists to track conditions currently under surveillance (CPSP, n.d.). Detailed reporting includes follow-up with providers and confirming case reports using electronic reporting (CPSP, n.d.). The investigator analyzes the reports before the reports are summarized for use, including a quarterly issued report detailing reported cases (CPSP, n.d.).
The Opioid and Stimulant-related Harms Surveillance System collects and monitors data on fatal and non-fatal instances related to opioids across Canada (Government of Canada, 2020). The purpose is to paint a national picture of how opioid-related instances impact the country’s public health system (Government of Canada, 2020). The surveillance system uses EHRs from the offices of Chief Coroners and Chief Medical Examiners in each province and territories, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and the Emergency Medical Services from each territory and province (Government of Canada, 2020). The data is then provided at the national level and presents an interactive website with key findings, trends, maps, and more (Government of Canada, 2020).
Both systems are intended to identify trends and incidences and are crafted to help shape policies and interventions. Both systems participate in active surveillance with the ongoing collection, analysis, and dissemination of their respective information, and they present their information quarterly. One difference between the systems is that the CPSP uses a two-tiered system for their surveillance activities for reporting. In contrast, the opioid surveillance system does not differentiate varying levels or steps to their surveillance activities. Another difference between the systems is that the CPSP collects EHR information from individual providers while the opioid surveillance system collects EHR information from various health and public health institutions.
Analyze the potential challenges and opportunities of using EHRs in a similar manner in your own country
A potential opportunity of using EHRs in a similar way in the United States is because the data is already compiled, it would allow for users of the data – providers, public health officials, policymakers, and more, to have immediate access to information that is already synthesized for their use (Entzeridou et al., 2018). Another potential opportunity is the integrated approach these two surveillance systems provide, allowing many institutions and programs to work together to have standardized and streamlined data and information (Lombardo & Buckeridge, 2007). A potential challenge is ensuring privacy and confidentiality in the data collection and reporting processes handing health record information. Another potential challenge is figuring out how to incorporate this type of approach to existing systems, including how the design and methods would translate.
Provide recommendations for how those challenges might be addressed
One way to address the potential challenge of breaches in privacy and confidentiality is to establish protocols for handling data from collection and reporting. The protocols would serve as a standard that all data collectors, data sources, analyzers, users, and more, must abide by to ensure safe handling of data and protect patient and organization information. Also, laws like HIPPAA will help to guide the protocols as well. One way to address the potential challenge of incorporating and integrating the approach into existing systems is to create algorithms and methods that allow for modifications and additions. If the algorithms and methods are designed with no room for adaptations or future changes, it will only be useful for the moment and will not allow for new integrations.
References
Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program. (n.d.). About the CPSP. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.12.004
Government of Canada. (2020). Data, surveillance and research on opioids and other substances.
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