Electronic Laboratory-Based Reporting: Opportunities and Challenges for Surveillance

Emerging Infectious Diseases Vol. 7, No. 3 Supplement, June 2001 538 Public health surveillance has been defined as the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and feedback of outcome-specific data used for public health practice (1). Laboratory reports are critical to public health surveillance because they initiate investigations of cases of reportable diseases or outbreaks of infections. The current system of laboratory reporting, which often relies on paper reports delivered by mail, is slow and incomplete. Electronic laboratorybased reporting (ELR) is likely to be more timely and complete (2). A number of challenges must be addressed before ELR can be used effectively, but recent activities are encouraging, and new opportunities for ELR implementation have arisen.