title: Development and Assessment of a Public Health Alert Delivered through a Community Health Information Exchange.
abstract: Timely communication of information to health care providers during a public health event can improve overall response to such events. However, current methods for sending information to providers are inefficient and costly. Local health departments have traditionally used labor-intensive, mail-based processes to send public health alerts to the provider community. This article describes a novel approach for delivering public health alerts to providers by leveraging an electronic clinical messaging system within the context of a health information exchange. Alerts included notifications related to the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic, a syphilis outbreak, and local rabies exposure. We describe the process for sending electronic public health alerts and the estimated impact on efficiency and cost effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Indiana University School of Medicine ; Regenstrief Institute.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gamache
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Rico
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Merriwether
authors.forename: Brian E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grannis
keywords: H1N1 flu; broadcast alert; clinical messaging; health information exchange; public health alerts; syndromic surveillance