Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

Section 13: Public Health Preparedness Informatics
I. Summary of Informatics Planning for Pandemic Influenza.
The NYSDOH Pandemic Influenza Informatics Plan leverages the existing public health
preparedness information systems on the NYSDOH Health Commerce Network for
planning, communications, surveillance, and response activities during an influenza
pandemic. These systems and their respective summary reports, charts and maps will be
accessed by program areas, executive leadership staff, and other responders on a 24/7
basis for ongoing situational assessment and decision support. The systems and their
general functions are summarized in the following table and presented in detail in Parts II
through VI of this Section.
Contact information maintained in the Commerce communications directory will be used
for all emergency or informational notifications.
Several Commerce systems will be used to monitor disease trends during an influenza
pandemic. These systems monitor spatial, temporal and infection rate patterns. The
detection of an unusual event may trigger activation of enhanced surveillance and
tracking systems. Event detection and routine surveillance systems include reporting of
laboratory test results through the Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting System
(ECLRS); suspect and confirmed human case reporting through the Communicable
Disease Electronic Surveillance System (CDESS); hospital patient admissions reporting
using the Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS); Emergency Department
(ED) syndromic reporting for unusual clusters of symptoms and chief complaints; long
term care facility disease reporting using HERDS and the Nosocomial Outbreak
Reporting Application (NORA); and reporting by other facilities including home health
care, adult homes and primary care clinics using the HERDS system. Additionally, the
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets will share data and alerts on avian influenza
and influenza in mammals through the Commerce Integrated Health Alerting and
Notification System (IHANS) and the Commerce executive decision making dashboard.
Once the presence of novel influenza has been detected, CDESS will be used to track
cases and manage information on contact tracing and quarantine, travel history, and case
isolation. CDESS data will be available in maps and statistical reports using the
Commerce spatial data warehouse, the GIS system, and executive dashboard decision
support system. Health facility needs and available resources (airborne isolation rooms,
staff, beds, and equipment) and patient traffic will be tracked through the HERDS
system. HERDS patient tracking and locator systems will assist the public in locating
family members and tracking bodies of the deceased in mass mortuary locations.
A Counter Measure and Response Tracking System (CMRTS) will support vaccine and
antiviral inventory tracking, SNS resource tracking, and adverse event monitoring and be
integrated with the Clinic Data Management System (CDMS) for mass administration of
vaccine or antivirals. The Commerce Professional Medical Volunteer System and
NYSDOH emergency contact and volunteer database system will be used to maintain a
roster of medical professionals for medical surge and POD administration.
February 7, 2006 13-2