MEDSIS

Keeping the Public Healthy Through Safe Food Practices

By |2017-04-07T10:06:03-07:00April 7th, 2017|Preparedness|

Note: This week is National Public Health Week. This week I have a five-part public health series that explores the vast network of programs and services that help improve the health and wellness of all Arizonans.  Our Epidemiology and Disease Control team plays a huge role in monitoring food safety and tracking the spread of [...]

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ADHS Lead Program Rings in the New Year with a New Surveillance System

By |2017-02-10T09:48:30-07:00January 31st, 2017|Preparedness|

In Arizona, healthcare providers identify hundreds of children each year with elevated blood lead levels, which our Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) monitors. Although there is no safe blood lead level, interventions are initiated at blood lead levels ≥ 5 µg/dL, the CDC reference value. When a child is identified with elevated blood lead [...]

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Sending Data to National Partners at the Speed of Light (Almost)

By |2017-02-10T09:48:31-07:00January 20th, 2017|Preparedness|

Every week, our disease detectives in the Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control send data to our national partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data from Arizona and other states is compiled to provide an overall picture of the nation’s health. Since it is a weekly process, the data that is [...]

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Using Technology to More Effectively Manage Outbreaks

By |2017-02-10T09:48:43-07:00August 15th, 2016|Preparedness|

In Arizona, outbreaks are reported and managed by local public health departments using a module in our electronic disease surveillance system, MEDSIS. Outbreak Module’s integration into MEDSIS allows users to easily link existing infectious disease cases to an outbreak and retrieve outbreak data for analysis.  The data collected in this module has replaced our paper-based outbreak [...]

Evaluating Stakeholder Needs to Improve Public Health Programs

By |2017-02-10T09:48:55-07:00March 25th, 2016|Preparedness|

Input and feedback from our partners is critical to ensuring the public health work we do is effective and meaningful. Even when (or especially when) programs have been in existence for years, it’s important to continue checking in with our stakeholders. MEDSIS, our electronic communicable disease surveillance system, has been in place since 2006, but [...]

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Disease Investigations: Electronic Tools at Work

By |2017-02-10T09:48:59-07:00February 19th, 2016|Preparedness|

When you get sick with an infectious disease like Salmonella or the flu, your healthcare provider or the laboratory that conducted the test on you is required to report your illness to the county or state public health department. In Arizona, almost 100 different diseases are reportable. Public health disease detectives investigate reports of diseases [...]

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Arizona’s Surveillance System Goes International

By |2017-02-10T09:49:10-07:00August 21st, 2015|General|

The ADHS MEDSIS Program and Tuberculosis Control Program have teamed up to enhance the already unique relationship with our Sonoran Public Health counterparts. As of June 25, we welcomed CureTB, an international referral agency, onto MEDSIS. The ADHS TB Control Program and Office of Border Health has a long standing relationship working with CureTB in following TB cases and contacts across international [...]

AZ Disease Detective Software Overhaul

By |2017-02-10T09:49:55-07:00January 14th, 2014|Preparedness|

Our statewide disease detectives (whose job it is to slow the spread of communicable diseases) need real-time electronic surveillance in order to get the job done.  Our I.T. folks and the people in Public Health Preparedness have been working on an upgraded system to help them for the last several months- and our new Medical Electronic [...]

International Data Sharing

By |2017-02-10T09:50:06-07:00October 8th, 2013|General|

Arizona and Sonora have a long history of collaborating on many projects over the years.  We long ago understood that disease doesn't stop at the border.  Arizona and Sonora were the 1st states along the U.S.-Mexico Border to share information on cross border cases in an organized way.  Since 2008, we’ve been sharing this information electronically [...]

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New Year, New MEDSIS

By |2013-01-14T10:08:41-07:00January 14th, 2013|General|

Over the past two years, folks in ITS and Epidemiology and Disease Control have been working together to enhance our state’s electronic communicable disease surveillance system called MEDSIS.   This week the new version of MEDSIS went live. Major enhancements include the integration of tuberculosis reporting, case management and surveillance; expanded case management capabilities for all diseases; [...]

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