PHSkb: A knowledgebase to support notifiable disease surveillance

Timothy J Doyle,Richard S Hopkins,Haobo Ma,Samuel L Groseclose

doi:10.1186/1472-6947-5-27

Abstract

BackgroundNotifiable disease surveillance in the United States is predominantly a passive process that is often limited by poor timeliness and low sensitivity. Interoperable tools are needed that interact more seamlessly with existing clinical and laboratory data to improve notifiable disease surveillance.DescriptionThe Public Health Surveillance Knowledgebase (PHSkb™) is a computer database designed to provide quick, easy access to domain knowledge regarding notifiable diseases and conditions in the United States. The database was developed using Protégé ontology and knowledgebase editing software. Data regarding the notifiable disease domain were collected via a comprehensive review of state health department websites and integrated with other information used to support the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). Domain concepts were harmonized, wherever possible, to existing vocabulary standards. The knowledgebase can be used: 1) as the basis for a controlled vocabulary of reportable conditions needed for data aggregation in public health surveillance systems; 2) to provide queriable domain knowledge for public health surveillance partners; 3) to facilitate more automated case detection and surveillance decision support as a reusable component in an architecture for intelligent clinical, laboratory, and public health surveillance information systems.ConclusionsThe PHSkb provides an extensible, interoperable system architecture component to support notifiable disease surveillance. Further development and testing of this resource is needed.

Highlights

Notifiable disease surveillance in the United States is predominantly a passive process that is often limited by poor timeliness and low sensitivity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a summary of notifiable disease activity in the United States [3]
This paper describes the initial creation of the Public Health Surveillance knowledgebase (PHSkb)

Summary

Background

In the United States, notifiable disease reporting is mandated by state and local regulations. Other electronic data (e.g., coded discharge diagnoses or pharmacy dispensing data) have been used to improve the sensitivity and timeliness of routine notifiable disease surveillance [11,12] Implementation of these methods often depends on the existence of tables that relate the coded laboratory or clinical findings to the notifiable conditions under surveillance. The systematized nomenclature of medicine (SNOMED) and logical observation identifier names and codes (LOINC) have been identified as important vocabulary standards for constructing these tables [13] This goal, the notifiable disease domain is expressed by using methods of ontology development and knowledge representation, combined with integration of national vocabulary standards that cover the domain. The reader is referred to the PHSkb for the full knowledge representation

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