Abstract
Electronic reporting systems improve the quality and timeliness of the surveillance of communicable diseases. The aim of this paper is to present the process of the implementation and introduction of an electronic reporting system for the surveillance of communicable diseases in Lithuania. The project which started in 2002 was performed in collaboration between Lithuania and Sweden and was facilitated by the parallel process of adapting the surveillance system to European Union (EU) standards. The Lotus-based software, SmittAdm, was acquired from the Department of Communicable Diseases Control and Prevention of Stockholm County in Sweden and adopted for Lithuania, resulting in the Lithuanian software, ULISAS. A major advantage of this program for Lithuania was the possibility to work offline. The project was initiated in the two largest counties in Lithuania where ULISAS had been installed and put in use by January 2005. The introduction was gradual, the national level was connected to the system during late 2005, and all remaining counties were included during 2006 and 2007. The reporting system remains to be evaluated concerning timeliness and completeness of the surveillance. Further development is needed, for example the inclusion of all physicians and laboratories and an alert system for outbreaks. The introduction of this case-based, timely electronic reporting system in Lithuania allows better reporting of data to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) compared to the former reporting system with paper-based, aggregated data.
Highlights
Well-functioning surveillance systems for communicable diseases are fundamental in providing information needed to take appropriate and timely measures
The main goal of this paper is to present the introduction process of the electronic surveillance system for communicable diseases ULISAS in Lithuania, a project that was performed with financial support and expertise from Sweden
Selection of electronic reporting system and development of the software Since the Lithuanian authorities wanted to see the result at county level before a central server was to be established, it was important to focus on the needs at the Public Health Centre (PHC) level
Summary
Well-functioning surveillance systems for communicable diseases are fundamental in providing information needed to take appropriate and timely measures. Physicians from a total of 1,257 primary care centres, hospitals and polyclinics and 21 laboratories report notifiable diseases by post, fax or e-mail to the TPHC and the PHC within 72 hours according to the rules and regulations. The epidemiologic investigations of individual cases and outbreaks are performed by epidemiologists at the TPHC and the PHC and reported on standardised paper forms to the CCDPC. For STI and HIV, physicians perform the epidemiological investigation and report weekly to the TPHC and PHC. Prior to the development of the electronic reporting system, aggregated data on 82 notifiable diseases collected at the TPHC and the PHC had been summarised using a standard statistical form at the end of every month and sent to the CCDPC in paper format. Aggregated data had been reported yearly to the CCDPC using 17 different statistical forms
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