California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE)

The California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) is a computer application that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is implementing for web-based disease reporting and surveillance. Specified diseases and conditions are mandated by State laws and regulations to be reported by healthcare providers and laboratories to the public health authorities.

What

CalREDIE is California's project for a PHIN-compliant electronic disease reporting and surveillance system integrated with electronic laboratory reporting (ELR). The purpose of this effort is to improve the efficiency of surveillance activities and the early detection of public health events through the collection of more complete and timely surveillance information on a state wide basis. A secure, web-based electronic solution is being implemented for health care providers to report cases of conditions of public health interest; and for laboratories to report laboratory reports for notifiable conditions to local health departments (LHDs) and the CDPH. This will allow for 24/7/365 reporting and receipt of notifiable conditions. LHDs and CDPH have access to disease and laboratory reports in near real-time for disease surveillance, public health investigation, and case management activities.

Why

The mission of CDPH is to protect and promote the health of all Californians. The initial source of information for public health surveillance is primarily the reporting of information from physicians and laboratories. State and local public health officials rely on these reports of notifiable diseases to:

• Determine the extent of the morbidity in the population (at the state and local level)
• Evaluate risks of transmission
• Intervene rapidly when appropriate
• Identify outbreaks and epidemics
• Develop prevention programs, identify core needs, and use scarce prevention resources efficiently
• Provide efficient and effective education and treatment programs
• Evaluate the success of long-term control and intervention efforts
• Facilitate epidemiologic research
• Assist with national and international disease surveillance efforts

Without such data, trends cannot be accurately monitored, or unusual occurrences of diseases might not be detected. Further, the medical community may not be accurately informed of occurrences of communicable diseases, and the effectiveness of intervention activities cannot be easily evaluated. A delay or failure to collect communicable disease information may contribute to serious consequences in the health of populations, such as secondary transmission. The usefulness of public health surveillance data depends on its uniformity, simplicity, and timeliness.

Where

The CalREDIE system is implemented within CDPH, LHDs, health care providers, and laboratories within California. The system is implemented within the Division of Communicable Disease Control (DCDC) at CDPH, which includes six (6) branches that participate in disease reporting and surveillance processes: (1) Infectious Disease Branch (2) Immunization Branch (3) Tuberculosis Control Branch (4) Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch (5) Microbial Disease Laboratory (6) Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory (7) Communicable Disease Emergency Response Branch. California has sixty-one LHDs. LHD participation in CalREDIE implementation is voluntary; however, CDPH anticipates that CalREDIE will be implemented in many of the LHDs. A three month pilot implementation including CDPH and three LHDS concluded on March 31, 2010. During this pilot, participating LHDs and CDPH had access to disease and laboratory reports to enhance disease surveillance, public health investigations, and case management activities. The outreach and recruitment of additional health departments is ongoing.  Currently, 53 LHDs are using  CalREDIE in some capacity (e.g, for TB reporting) and 46 LHDs are using CalREDIE to report all diseases. CalREDIE is also used by select health care providers within California to report cases of conditions of public health interest to the appropriate LHD.ELR will be implemented at clinical, commercial, and public health laboratories within California.

Contact