INFORMATICS
APHL Makes Progress on Electronic Lab Reporting
for Animal Rabies
by Rachel Shepherd, specialist, Informatics
Reliable and timely methods for data
exchange are critical for the surveillance
of animal rabies disease. Currently, most
laboratories that APHL works with either
are not reporting or are sporadically
reporting rabies data manually in a
variety of ways. Typically, the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
receives rabies data from laboratories
on an annual basis, making surveillance
nearly impossible.
In order to facilitate more timely rabies
reporting, APHL is collaborating with
the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) Poxvirus and Rabies
Branch (PRB) and reporting entities (REs)
including public health, agriculture and
academic laboratories to accelerate the
adoption of standardized Health-Level
Seven (HL7) ELR 2.5.1 results to improve
the overall national picture of rabies
disease trends.
Digital illustration of Rabies virus
APHL’s technical assistance team for
electronic lab reporting (ELR) of rabies—
consisting of technical architects and
terminologists and funded by the
CDC—works with the laboratory to
electronically report animal rabies data
using a standardized vocabulary and
message format. Not only does this
automation ease the reporting burden
for laboratorians, it ensures the timely
and accurate flow of information to CDC.
Reporting happens in near real-time,
providing a comprehensive snapshot of
rabies trends.
APHL’s technical assistance team for electronic lab reporting (ELR) of rabies—
consisting of technical architects and terminologists and funded by the
CDC—works with the laboratory to electronically report animal rabies data
using a standardized vocabulary and message format.
rabies message uses the same format as
PHLIP 2.5.1. If laboratories are working
with APHL on other technical assistance,
rabies messaging could easily be treated
as a tack-on project.
To achieve this, APHL works alongside
the laboratory informatics team, state
epidemiologists and state veterinarians
to build and validate messages. The ELR
does not take the place of or supersede
existing mechanisms for reporting to state
epidemiologists; rather it works alongside
a laboratory’s existing system.
Right now, three laboratories are in full
production and actively reporting, and
nine others are in the onboarding and
validation process. APHL is striving to
get the majority of states electronically
reporting their animal rabies data by the
end of the year. n
For most laboratories, especially those
who have already upgraded to 2.5.1 HL7,
this project is quite manageable, as the
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
To find out how your laboratory can
electronically report Animal Rabies
data, please contact Rachel Shepherd
at [email protected], or
240-485-2796.
Spring 2019 LAB MATTERS
27