Network To Bolster CDC's Fight Against BioterrorismNetwork To Bolster CDC's Fight Against Bioterrorism

Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they'll use a national health-care data-collection, surveillance, and detection network to spot early-warning signs that an infectious disease is spreading rapidly. It's a capability that will let the CDC better prepare for bioterrorism attacks.

The CDC, in collaboration with the eHealth Initiative, a nonprofit group of more than 60 health-care organizations, says it will enhance its National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) during the next year to capture critical data from laboratories, pharmacies, emergency rooms, and physicians.

Data that could trigger an investigation would be culled from diagnostic labs' test orders, hospitals and doctors, symptoms and diagnoses, pharmacies, and other health-related databases. The CDC knows it needs to quickly replace its system, which relies mostly on phone, paper, U.S. mail, and fax notifications. "The information can take weeks or a month to reach the CDC. And then there's no way for information to go outbound from the CDC to the health-care providers," says Dr. Charles Saunders, president of EDS's health-care group and a former ER physician.

But the CDC isn't clear on how to link the information systems of 5,000 hospitals, 11,000 emergency medical personnel, and 370,000 physicians nationwide, or what the cost will be. Initiative members, including Cerner, EDS, Guidant, IBM, and Siemens, hope to find a solution. The group supplies about 80% of the hardware, software, and services to U.S. hospitals. Data would be gathered from health-care providers via the Web and stored in the NEDSS database, Saunders says.

That's a good start, but more work is needed, says Rock Regan, Connecticut's CIO and president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. The state plans to start integrating 18 disease-surveillance systems into one database during the next year, he says. The National Governors Association estimates the first year of gearing up for bioterrorism response will cost states $3 billion.