Table 1.

Examples of PHIN Functional Requirements

PHIN Functional Areas	Example Requirements
Early event detection	Secondary use of clinical care and other health-related data for early identification of public health events
	Reportable disease case reporting from clinical care via the Web and 24/7 call reporting systems with triage of disease urgency
	Situational awareness of the size, location, and spread of a health event using secondary use data and case reporting
	Disease data exchange using HL7-specific implementation guides
	Detection algorithms to determine and visualize deviation from normal disease patterns
Outbreak management	Case investigation and management
	Exposure contact tracing
	Exposure source investigation and linking of cases and contacts to exposure sources
	Data collection, packaging, and shipment of clinical and environmental specimens
	Integration with early detection and countermeasure administration capabilities
	Linking laboratory test results with clinical case data
	Flexibility to support agent-specific and emerging requirements while adhering to standard terminology and data relationships
Connecting laboratory systems	Standard HL7 message formats and terminology standards for specimen receipt and laboratory result reporting
	Receipt and management of specimen and sample data
	Monitoring of testing activity to project load distribution during a large-scale event
Countermeasure and response administration	Support and track administration of vaccinations and prophylaxes
	Support apportionment and allocation for limited supplies
	Traceability to drug lot, vaccinator, or clinic
	Adverse events monitoring
	Follow-up of patients (e.g., vaccine “take” response evaluation)
	Isolation and quarantine monitoring and tracking
	Links to distribution vehicles (such as commercial distribution channels and the Strategic National Stockpile2) to provide traceability between distributed and administered products
	Integration with immunization and disease registries
Partner communications and alerting	Rapid distribution of health alerts and communications to public health workers, primary care physicians, public health laboratory workers, the public, etc.
	Multiple channels of distribution: e-mail, pagers, voicemail, and/or automated faxing
	Selective distribution based on the urgency and sensitivity of the message
	Collaborative communications (Web boards, threaded discussions, and Web conferencing) among a defined set of involved public health professionals
Cross-functional components	Secure message transport: ensuring messages are received and read only by intended audiences
	Public health directory for consistent, uniform management of people, roles, organizations, organization types, and jurisdictions when exchanging information
	Recipient addressing: identifying appropriate recipient lists for information exchange
	Terminology standards: adhering to standard vocabulary lists and structures
	System security and availability: protecting systems from sabotage or failure, and protecting data from corruption or unauthorized access
	Privacy: protecting patients and organizations from fraudulent or unauthorized use of their information