Misys Healthcare Systems, a leader in healthcare information technology, announced today Misys Laboratory-Disease Reporting Interface™, a new connectivity solution designed to transmit infectious disease data to state electronic laboratory reporting databases. The solution allows public health officials to track and predict communicable diseases and to react immediately to bioterrorism, chemical terrorism and other public health emergencies.

The New York State Department of Health, which collects patient data from several Misys New York-based clients, is among the first to activate the Misys interfacing solution to improve the transmission of infectious disease reporting to its state and local health departments.

For more than a century, state clinical laboratories have reported to state public health authorities the presence of certain diseases and conditions considered serious threats to public health. Most state health departments’ reporting systems are manual and use paper-based reporting methods.

The Misys interfacing connectivity solution aggregates reportable disease conditions from a hospital laboratory system and transmits the information in a single data set to a state department of health database. The data is then disseminated to statewide health departments and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). NEDSS is a public health initiative that provides a standards-based, integrated approach to disease surveillance. A primary goal of NEDSS is the ongoing, automatic capture and analysis of data already available electronically.