Development of a nosocomial outbreak investigation database.
A pilot web-based database was created to facilitate epidemiological investigation of nosocomial outbreaks. The database provides highly structured abstracts in a case study format to serve as a guide for investigations. Problems encountered in abstracting over 330 published reports included missing information and classification of study methods. The database offers a new way to review outbreaks, for example, in terms of their impact measured by various combinations of database fields, such as the number of cases, attack rate, pathogens, service/ward and mode of transmission. Feedback from users of the database suggests its usefulness. Creation of a large web-based database seems to be both desirable and feasible.
Makimoto
K
K
Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Division of Nursing, 1-7 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-087,1 Japan. makimoto@sahs.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
Ashida
N
N
Qureshi
N
N
Tsuchida
T
T
Sekikawa
A
A
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D040442:Public Health Informatics