Grant links U. of Iowa lab, Minnesota and Nebraska in influenza information, testing

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Source: http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/NEWS01/81002006/1079

Grant links UI lab, Minnesota and Nebraska in influenza information, testing

the Press-Citizen ? October 2, 2008

From the University of Iowa News Services Office
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $258,000 to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the University Hygienic Laboratory (UHL) for the development of an electronic interface between three states to help meet testing demand in the event of an influenza pandemic.

The UHL is collaborating with the Minnesota Public Health Laboratory and the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory to create the Automated Electronic Influenza Reporting System. Through an electronic interface, each of the three laboratories will be able to order influenza testing and obtain results directly from the others? computer systems.

"The need to rapidly order tests and access results is particularly critical during disease outbreaks," said UHL Director Christo-pher Atchison. "This grant will help Iowa meet surges in testing and creates a structure for Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska to assist each other during public health emergencies."

This design will allow rapid test ordering and reporting for influenza and influenza-like illnesses. It also will support these labo-ratories in providing each other with backup testing during a pandemic and potentially during other emergencies.

"This is not only a new system for the Midwest, it is the first of its kind anywhere," said IDPH Director Tom Newton. "This tech-nology ensures Iowa is ready, should we ever face a health emergency."

The Automated Electronic Influenza Reporting System will use the Health Level Seven (HL7) standard to create test-order and result messages that are understood by the information systems of each the laboratories. HL7 is the de facto standard for exchang-ing health care information for large hospitals, commercial laboratories and CDC.

UHL?s information technology (IT) staff will work with the subject-matter experts and IT staff from the Minnesota and Ne-braska laboratories to create message guidelines, harmonize orders and results, establish the electronic interface, and implement the new program. After completion, this design will be made available to other state laboratories as a template for creating similar systems.

The University Hygienic Laboratory is part of the University of Iowa and is the state of Iowa?s environmental and public health laboratory. The UHL is the designated laboratory for the Iowa Neonatal Metabolic Screening Program, with facilities located on the Oakdale Campus in Iowa City and at the Iowa Lab Facilities in Ankeny, a Des Moines suburb. Among its many services, the laboratory functions as a consultative and analytical support facility for state agencies, health professionals and citizens. The UHL performs analyses on samples from virtually all matrices, including human clinical specimens, air, drinking water, wastewater, soil, sediment, industrial effluents, oil and fish.

Additional information about UHL, its programs and services is available online at http://www.uhl.uiowa.edu.

 

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Re: Grant links U. of Iowa lab, Minnesota and Nebraska in influenza information, testing

Source: http://www.govhealthit.com/online/news/350613-1.html

Pandemic reporting system will speed lab info exchange
By Heather B. Hayes
Published on October 10, 2008

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded a $258,000 grant to the Iowa Public Health Department and the University Hygienic Laboratory (UHL) to develop an electronic interface to speed the exchange of test results in the event of a pandemic.

The Automated Electronic Influenza Reporting System, which is expected to take a year to complete, will enable the UHL -- Iowa?s state laboratory -- the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and the Minnesota Public Health Laboratory to electronically order tests from one another on an as-needed basis and then transmit results back without any human intervention.

The interface, says Dari Shirazi, IT manager of the UHL, will significantly speed the process of getting laboratory findings back to physicians and give each lab an immediate heads-up on what tests are coming, so the receiving lab can successfully plan for a surge.

Currently, cross-lab tests are ordered by phone and fax and can take several manual steps and several days just to get results back. That type of process will not suffice in the event of a pandemic, Shirazi said. ?This system gives us quite a lot more capability to order off of other laboratory systems when we are short-handed or at capacity.?

The system, thought to be the first of its kind, will rely on the Health Level 7 health messaging standard to create test-order and result messages so they can be understood by the different Laboratory Information Management Systems.

Shirazi said the biggest challenge in creating the interface will be to come up with common ways to report information, including how tests are named, how results are displayed and what patient information is required.

?We?ll need to figure out how each information system defines all of these fields, find the commonality and then figure out how we can talk to each other,? Shirazi said. ?And it all has to be done upfront.?

The hope and goal with this system ?is to do this in a way that other states can eventually implement it and benefit from it so everybody doesn?t have to reinvent the wheel,? he added.