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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Donna Robbins, DrPH, MPH, Tennessee Department of Public Health, Northeast Tennessee Regional Public Health Office, 1233 Southwest Ave. Ext., Johnson City, TN 37604-6519, 423-979-4655, Donna.G.Robbins@state.tn.us

Introduction: The Northeast Tennessee Public Health Region began initiating syndromic surveillance with health care facilities when these data sources were meeting the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Privacy Rule compliance deadline (2003). The challenges of establishing this non-traditional, pre-diagnosis disease monitoring were further complicated by the concerns about confidentiality.

Objectives: The regional public health epidemiologist and staff sought to assure the data sources (hospital EDs) that establishing and maintaining syndromic surveillance was in keeping with the need for health authorities to provide and protect the public's health and safety. This health team also established methods of information protection that would continue to maximize confidentiality and sustain trust while collecting necessary data.

Methods: To achieve these objectives the regional epidemiologist:

1) Drafted written legal agreements documenting the use of limited data sets with no unique identifiers; 2) Provided hospitals with letters of support from the Tennessee Commissioner of Health and the Deputy State Epidemiologist which cited federal (CFR) and state (TCA) legal documentation; 3) Established VPNs and FTP sites that would protect data during transmission.

Results: Seven hospital emergency departments agreed to participate within the first year (2003) and have maintained data transmission. One ED which initially expressed legal concerns will soon begin data transmission, and one other has expressed recent interest.

Conclusions: Data source participation has and will continue to be influenced not only by the protection and HIPAA compliance assured by the public health team, but also by “peer” hospital participation and HRSA funding.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Describe the challenges associated with assuring data sources that establishing syndromic surveillance is in keeping with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
• Describe steps to plan, implement and maintain syndromic surveillance while strictly complying with HIPAA requirements.
• Describe other factors influencing current and future data source surveillance participation.

Keywords: Health Insurance Portability Act, Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered