The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals requested support, maintenance and enhancement of existing systems, as well as development of new custom systems. Now in the middle of year two of this three-year contract, Technology Engineers has completed the implementation of the EpiStories system and is in the testing stages of the Louisiana Early Event Detection System (LEEDS), the Louisiana Animal Disease Surveillance System (LADSS) and Bio-Terrorism Incident Tracking System (BITS).
Our team initially met with key DHH OPH staff to gather and document all requirements for the requested systems, and we continue to work closely to insure that the systems’ end results are in line with their needs and vision, and that all development, testing, and training processes run smoothly. Throughout the design period, Technology Engineers’ participates in client meetings and provides status updates. Once complete, the systems are thoroughly tested, with test plan documentation and user manuals provided for the client.
The Louisiana Early Event Detection System (LEEDS) is a web-based application, created to replace the Excel and SAS based syndromic surveillance tools. Syndromic Surveillance is the field data collection and analysis of pre-diagnostic and non-clinical disease indicators, used to monitor trends in syndromes of public health importance and rapidly detect clusters of symptoms and health
complaints that might indicate a disease outbreak or other public health threat.
The system automatically imports and processes multiple hospitals’ emergency department data files and flags each patient record for syndromes. The program also incorporates a manual processing function which allows DHH users to review and alter records before processing in order to bypass validation rules. Once data has been brought into the system, DHH users have a multitude of reports to run statistics on various parameters. Reports can be filtered by date range, syndrome, hospital and region. U.S. Emergency Department Visit statistics are also captured by the system to enable reports to compare Louisiana statistics to national statistics.
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Additional features included in the LEEDS system are code tables, retro mapping, historical definitions, and an address book. These features allow DHH staff to make modifications in the system through a user-friendly interface, altering code data, input data, and internal staff data.
The EpiStories system, redesigned with ASP.NET 3.5 technology and an Oracle 10g database as the backend, replaced a poorly functioning Java application. Now web-based, the new application records and tracks the causes and consequences of infectious diseases in Louisiana and the surrounding areas. This system is used internally by OPH staff and Central users, and externally by Regional staff involved in epidemiologic investigations.
This system includes data entry screens, code tables, an audit trail and integrates with DHH’s Single Sign-On.
The Louisiana Animal Disease Surveillance System is a system built by the Louisiana Office of Public Health (OPH) to provide early detection and tracking of animal diseases
and outbreaks. This system will provide real time data to the State Veterinarian and OPH-IDES, as well as other agencies around the state.
Cases can be entered into the LADSS system through data entry screens or an import function. The system collects information regarding the animal, the owner and other contacts, the location of the incident, laboratory results, etc. Each user has a profile maintenance page which allows them to maintain their email and contains a list of diseases that they would like to be notified about, via email notification, when a new case is input into the system. Once cases are in the system, users can run reports on the data. The report has the option of including address information for GIS purposes.
The system includes a search function, data entry screens, code table, an audit trail, profile maintenance, reports and an upload function.
The Bio-terrorism Incident Tracking System (BITS) is a system that tracks environmental
and clinical bioterrorism samples including incident, recipient, exposure,
address, and laboratory information about each case. Once a new case is started
in the BITS system, the agency that has recovered the sample fills out initial
information regarding the incident, which is mandatory in order for DHH to
accept the sample. The sample is then assigned to a specific owner organization.
The BITS system has six user types with different levels of access; access to
all cases, access to cases by region and access by owner organization. The
system includes a search function, data entry screens, code tables, an audit
trail and email notifications. The system also interfaces with DHH’s Single
Sign-On. |
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