Status of Electronic Reporting of Notifiable Conditions in the United States and Europe

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Abstract
Objective To improve the computer connectivity and network strategies to connect U.S. county health departments (CHDs), state health departments (SHDs), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for reporting notifiable conditions. Methods HSPNET-L mailing list discussions and individual Internet communications were used to compare selected features of notifiable conditions networking in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Results In the US, the CHD is the agency that first responds to an infectious disease outbreak on receiving notifications from physicians. Prompt recognition by the SHD that a widespread outbreak has occurred depends on the way in which county data are received, the "age" of the data, and the time taken to analyze them. Similarly, the recognition of the national scale of the outbreak depends on the promptness with which SHDs report to the CDC and the age of the data. An analysis of the French Communicable Disease Network suggests that an expansion of electronic links betw...