Moves to streamline process for reporting notifiable diseases
From measles to whooping cough, disease outbreaks have hit the headlines this year.
Behind the scenes, doctors are busy reporting patients with these conditions, and the other 50 or so notifiable diseases, to public health services. This reporting and referral process will be electronic and streamlined in future if this year's winning Clinicians' Challenge vendors have their way.
Corinne Gower of Maxsys worked with Healthlink and Kinross Group to come up with a way to electronically notify legally reportable conditions to public health services.
Clinicians entered the challenge by outlining a work-related problem that the innovative use of information technology could help solve. Health IT vendors were then asked to come up with a solution to the three cases chosen as finalists. There were 56 entries from clinicians this year.
Through the Clinicians' Challenge process, a group of public health physicians including Hawke's Bay Medical Officer of Health Nicholas Jones, asked software vendors for a solution that streamlines the referral process for reporting doctors and ensures sufficient information is provided in the initial referral to enable medical officers of health to prioritise and manage referrals efficiently and safely.
Corinne Gower says the challenge was an opportunity to say "hey, you've got this need, and we think we can help you with a solution."
"In our case the solution is a kitset. Our solution is about showing the sector how to create the solution they want with some base materials."
Corinne Gower says at first sight it was a "very daunting challenge" but what appealed was the opportunity to collaborate. While there are no guarantees the work will go ahead, as a group of vendors they enjoyed the experience of working together and talking to Nick Jones and other Medical Officers of Health, she says.
"What struck me about the challenge was that it would require multiple parties, vendors and clinicians to work together, to define what information is really required to inform the prioritisation and decision making processes when a notifiable disease is suspected or confirmed. If you can nail the principles and concepts from the start, you are more likely to get buy in to the overall process."
Corinne Gower is in no doubt about the value of this work but says success will require a huge effort and involve a lot of cross-sector listening and discussion.
"Enabling interoperability between public health units, ESR and primary care is a huge undertaking and one which would have enormous benefits for all New Zealanders, particularly if we get another pandemic. An earlier notification system and smarter interconnectivity between systems (such as the National Immunisation Register) would make a real difference to this important area of health. Let's hope the time to meet this challenge has come!"
