Description of the MHS Health Level 7 Microbiology Laboratory for Public Health Surveillance

Abstract

The EpiData Center Department (EDC) at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) evaluated the Health Level 7 (HL7) data source for its usefulness in health surveillance activities. This technical document provides a history of the HL7 microbiology database and its contents, explains the creation of microbiology records, describes the pathway of data from healthcare provider to the EDC, provides a detailed descriptions of all variables within the database, and assesses the database's strengths and limitations. Given an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the data, HL7 microbiology data have proven to be a valuable source of health information for surveillance purposes. The data allow the creation of a timeline of events corresponding to a specific disease occurrence. Furthermore, data are received in a timely fashion, allowing for near-real-time surveillance of diseases.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA590818

Entities

People

  • Gosia Nowak
  • Uzo Chukwuma

Organizations

  • Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Air Force
  • Chemistry
  • Databases
  • Department Of Defense
  • Health Services
  • Infection
  • Infection Control
  • Laboratory Equipment
  • Laboratory Procedures
  • Laboratory Tests
  • Marine Corps
  • Medical Personnel
  • Microbiology
  • Public Health
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Methods

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Medical or Health Care Field.