PHLIS: an electronic system for reporting public health data from remote sites.

Disease surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in conjunction with state health departments provides databases of information to public health workers. These databases' utility is limited by the lag time from occurrence of disease events until records are available for analysis. We developed the Public Health Laboratory Information System (PHLIS), a PC-based electronic reporting system for entering, editing, and analyzing data locally and for transmitting data electronically to other state or federal offices. Advantages of PHLIS include reduction in paper handling, decrease in lag time between disease incident and availability of information for analysis, ability to rapidly examine data for clusters of disease, downloadable summary tables, data editing at site of input, data analysis capability, increased interaction among participants, and current data for responses to inquiries. PHLIS is available without cost and is transportable to other agencies, states, or countries.