Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
10.3.5 System Development Challenges
Challenges were met in the development of the CISDCP. The major ones
experienced are summarized below:
1. Variation between geographic areas required system modifications/
concessions. It is given that China is a very large country with great
variation across regions in terms of economic development. It follows
then, that it was neither easy nor possible to change the low level of
information technology (IT) infrastructure that existed in some of the
r e m o t e a r e a s i in t i m e f o r s y s t e m i m p l e m e in t a t i o in . A l s o, r e c r u i t m e in t a in d
staff training presented a heavy burden in such areas. Consequently,
4% of the county-level hospitals and 25% of the township-level
hospitals and clinics are still using phones to report disease case
information to other institutions that have Internet access.
2. Lack of enough qualified personnel affected staffing for system
implementation. Public health information systems depend on hav-
ing reliable and trained personnel with multidisciplinary training
in policy, administration, public health, technology, health informat-
ics, and so on. Currently, in China, there are not enough individuals
who fit this description to meet demands.
3. There has been difficulty in data-sharing with nonhealth institutions.
Collaboration between public health agencies, hospitals, and clinics
is very efficient within the healthcare system. However, information
sharing and collaboration between health and nonhealth organiza-
tions and departments, such as China's national agriculture depart-
ment, is not yet in coordinated. Animal and human health disease
surveillance databases are not currently linked.
4. There are weak linkages with hospital information systems (HIS).
While cases detected by hospitals are required to be reported to the
CDC over the Internet, there is no direct linkage between hospital
information systems and case reporting systems. Currently, hospi-
tals manually enter disease case data into the surveillance system,
which leads to duplicate efforts and a slight time delay in reporting.
10.4 The System's Future Directions
China's infectious disease surveillance system will continue to evolve and
undergo improvement in the coming years. Future directions with respect
to system expansion, data and information exchange, and the regional infor-
mation network are discussed below:
