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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Michael Kosnett, MD, MPH, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 1630 Welton St., Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202, 303 571 5778, michael.kosnett@uchsc.edu and Lee S. Newman, MD, MA, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 4200 East Ninth Ave. B164, Denver, CO 80262.

Public health planning and intervention in the event of an event-related mass exposure to chemical, biological, or radiological hazards will be greatly facilitated by the prompt enrollment of potentially or actually exposed individuals into a registry that can track their health status. As a practical matter, implementation of such a registry will have to confront multiple logistical challenges, such as the likelihood that the target population may rapidly disperse and seek medical attention from different health care providers distributed over a wide geographical area. In addition, the type of health status data sought from the target population (e.g. specific laboratory tests) may quickly change as information on the nature of the exposure event evolves. We describe an internet accessible medical monitoring software system that has been specifically designed to address these challenges. Utilizing modular architecture integrated with an Oracle database, the system features standardized “smart” forms that minimize the potential for data collection errors. There are options for on-line or uploadable data entry by an interviewer, health care provider, or registrant. Real-time linkage of records in the same secure database facilitates rapid data analysis, and allows new form fields to be created or updated at any time. Generation of individual or aggregate reports, deliverable to multiple end-users, is a fundamental system feature. In addition to supporting rapid public health planning, the system's capacity for longitudinal data collection and health status tracking will facilitate future health studies of the at-risk or impacted population.

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

• Recognize the challenges posed in the implementation of a health registry following a mass event-related hazardous exposure
• Describe the advantages of a secure internet-accessible registry that allows rapid data collection on a dispersed population
• Articulate the public health utility of real-time analysis of registry data in the setting of a mass event-related exposure

Keywords: Data/Surveillance, World Wide Web

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Organization	Clinical/Research Area	Type of Relationship
Occupational HealthLink, Inc.	Occupational/Environmental Health	Consultant

Any company-sponsored training?	No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?	No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Recorded presentation