FROM THE FOUNDATION

Paper to Electronic Charts Made Easy

Community clinics with experience making the transition from paper to electronic records share the strategies, techniques, and insights they learned along the way.

Telehealth Project to Provide Dental Care

Low-income families will receive free dental care, thanks to the Virtual Dental Home, a telehealth project supported by CHCF and other funders. The four-year pilot project will eventually operate in nine California communities.

Take the DiabetesMine Design Challenge

Have a creative idea for a new tool to improve life with diabetes? The 2010 DiabetesMine Design Challenge is offering $23,000 in cash, plus consultations with design experts and other prizes. CHCF is a sponsor; entries are due by April 30.

Public Health

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Public Agencies Tap Various IT Tools To Track H1N1 Influenza

HHS recently announced plans to work with the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to monitor the spread of H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, Government Health IT reports.

HHS said DOD will leverage its Defense Medical Surveillance System to explore connections between vaccinations and medical visits.

The department also plans to use registries to examine the effects of vaccinating newborn infants and their mothers against H1N1.

Meanwhile, VA officials are working with FDA to conduct a pilot evaluation of 1.1 million VA patients through the department's database.

CDC, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Indian Health Service and NIH also are participating in the interagency project (Buxbaum, Government Health IT, 11/4).

Tracking School Closures

In related news, CDC said it will partner with the Department of Education to track school closings related to H1N1 flu and other disease outbreaks.

The agencies said they will collect and analyze real-time school closure information from local school districts and public health agencies.

CDC said the data will help officials evaluate the impact of disease outbreaks and monitor how schools are complying with federal flu recommendations (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 11/3).

Maryland Monitoring System

Meanwhile, Maryland is deploying its Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics to track H1N1 activity statewide.

The ESSENCE system collects data on medical complaints from the state's 46 hospitals and submits the information to state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Epidemiologists monitor the data for abnormalities and correlations, and the system generates automatic alerts if a hospital encounters an unusual number of similar complaints.

ESSENCE also helps officials monitor flu activity by collecting data on over-the-counter medication sales from more than 200 chain pharmacies in the state.

State officials say the project next aims to integrate school absenteeism data into the system (Sweeney, HealthLeaders Media, 11/4).

Reader Comments:
  • 1
  • 11/05/2009
  • Mary Moran

My child says the kids at school learned to cough and sneeze into their elbow with Germy Wormie, and I was totally taken aback. I always covered with my hands. But I went to the website and now I get it, hands touch, elbows don't!! Kids can touch 300 surfaces in 1/2 hour and they hate to wash their hands. This is a simple thing that can make a huge difference. There is also an entertaining DVD that teaches them in a fun way the elbow cough, as well as other important hygiene habits. This could be effective in the medical setting as well!



Readers are invited to send feedback to: ihb@chcf.org

Click to register for iHealthBeat