Canadian Integrated Public Health Surveillance (CIPHS)

• What is the CIPHS Program?
• Why do we need CIPHS?
• How does CIPHS address these challenges?
• How will Canadians benefit from CIPHS?
• The CIPHS Projects
• What is the Public Health Information System (iPHIS)?
• What is the Laboratory Data Management System (LDMS) and how does it work ?
• What is the CIPHS Collaborative Development Project?
• How does the CIPHS initiative fit in with other health surveillance initiatives?
• Events
• Publications
• Update: iPHIS Maintenance and Support
  

What is the CIPHS Program?

CIPHS brings together a strategic alliance of public health and information technology professionals working collaboratively to build an integrated suite of computer and database tools specifically for use by Canadian public health professionals. These custom tools are being designed to support the systematic collection and collation of health surveillance data as a by-product of the normal work of public health professionals. The data will be used to support evidence-based public health decisions. Why do we need CIPHS?

Why do we need CIPHS?

Public health surveillance requires timely exchange of information between and among laboratories and public health authorities. Existing electronic systems in public health are not designed to pass data from one level to another (be it local, provincial/territorial or federal) nor are they designed to pass data from one system to another. This results in duplication, higher costs, loss of critical information, as well as missed opportunities for intervention and prevention.

How does CIPHS address these challenges?

CIPHS provides integrated business systems, which allow for the capture, integration and forwarding of data as a by-product of front-line workers doing their normal work. Instead of using different standalone systems, public health workers will have an integrated system that operates in an easy to use, consistent manner; they can use the same data for the same cases without having to re-enter it into multiple systems.

All CIPHS tools are being built to a single data model and follow the national standards set for health surveillance.

How will Canadians benefit from CIPHS?

Public health workers will be able to more effectively undertake public health action because of improved management of information and increased access to key data elements. This will have numerous positive results. For example:

• laboratory workers will benefit from having access to standardized information with important findings from the case investigation; this means that if a laboratory knows that a case may be part of a particular outbreak, the laboratory can do additional work to further identify the responsible organism;
• epidemiologists can track emerging and re-emerging diseases and identify and manage threats to health (eg. outbreaks and other biologic threats);
• public health managers can gain input for planning and evaluating health services, and most importantly
• parents will be able to ask a public health nurse to provide them with the complete immunization record for their children no matter where they were vaccinated across Canada;

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The CIPHS Projects ?

CIPHS main components: the Public Health Information System (iPHIS), the Laboratory Data Management System (LDMS).

What is the Public Health Information System (iPHIS)?

Public Health Information System (iPHIS) part of Public Health Agency of Canada is an automated, integrated, client health record and reporting system that supports public health provider interventions, tracking, follow-up, case management, and reporting. iPHIS includes immunization tracking, communicable disease case management, and surveillance components and is designed to be used centrally, providing secure access to one client record by multiple public health providers and programs and allowing communicable disease surveillance and immunization information to be shared.

Originally developed for use as an application by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BC-CDC), Public Health Agency of Canada has been working in collaboration with its federal, provincial, and territorial partners to further enhance i-PHIS. As a result, the iPHIS application has been made available without any licensing fees by Public Health Agency of Canada to all public health jurisdictions across Canada. As a public health case management tool, iPHIS is a key component of Public Health Agency of Canada Canadian Integrated Public Health Surveillance (CIPHS) project and is part of the project's objective to deliver solutions for the management of detailed and accurate information about health events.

It is understood that while public health professionals have common requirements they also have individual needs. To accommodate these varying needs, iPHIS can function independently as a complete system or can be used in conjunction with existing complementary systems. iPHIS can be customized to meet specific requirements by turning on and implementing specific modules. Additional functions and modules not currently included in iPHIS can be added or used in conjunction with iPHIS.

iPHIS adheres to national data standards to enable data sharing and can be used as part of an emerging national network of health surveillance. iPHIS has the option of providing a secure access to a single client record by many public health providers and programs and information to be shared as defined by the user.

There is no licensing fee charged to any public health jurisdiction in Canada that wishes to use iPHIS. Pilots will be funded by each jurisdiction with technical and implementation support from Public Health Agency of Canada.

The following jurisdictions have implemented iPHIS:

• British Columbia
• Manitoba (Winnipeg Regional Health Authority)
• Saskatchewan
• Alberta (David Thompson Health District and Alberta Health and Wellness)
• Northwest Territories
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Ontario
• Bahamas
• Yukon

What is the Laboratory Data Management System (LDMS) and how does it work ?

LDMS is a laboratory information management system that supports sample reception, sample tracking, testing, quality assurance and test certification, reporting, queries and case management. It is unique among laboratory systems because of its ability to address the needs of the public health surveillance community for easy exchange of public health related data. LDMS has the capacity to hold relevant patient information related to specimens being tested and information on case investigations, and also has the capacity to link this to a particular specimen or group of specimens.

LDMS is currently operating in two Health Canada laboratories: the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonosis in Guelph, Ontario; and, the Enterics Division, National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

What is the CIPHS Collaborative Development Project?

The CIPHS Collaborative is a group of federal, provincial/territorial and regional partners that encompasses public health officials, information technology professionals and program managers.The key responsibilities of the CIPHS Collaborative are to:

• provide overall strategic direction related to the development of shared public health applications and databases;
  
• ensure consistency of the shared public health applications and databases with evolving Pan-Canadian initiatives;
  
• promote a uniform information management (IM) concept for public health in Canada; foster a spirit of collaboration within a trusting and respectful environment;
  
• maintain an on-going liaison with governments, non-governmental agencies and collaboratives to ensure coordination;
  
• coordinate the future development and ongoing maintenance of the shared applications;
  
• ensure that public health information is captured, retained and transferred in a secure and agreed upon manner.

How does the CIPHS initiative fit in with other health surveillance initiatives?

CIPHS is one of several projects that are part of the Network for Health Surveillance in Canada. In June 1999, federal/provincial/territorial (F/P/T) Deputy Ministers of Health agreed to make the harnessing of new information technology to improve health surveillance a priority.

While improved information sharing is a goal for all areas of health surveillance, the initial F/P/T priorities are focused on using technology to improve health surveillance in communicable diseases, immunization, and vaccine associated adverse events. CIPHS works closely with many program initiatives areas such as the National Immunization Strategy and the FPT Communicable Disease Surveillance Subgroup

In addition, the CIPHS initiative is an important step in developing the public health components of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) now under development by Canada's federal, provincial and territorial health authorities. Through its work, CIPHS will contribute to the development of:

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• protocols for activities, such as access to provincial registries, client files and labs;
• tools to support the EHR architecture (eg. messaging);
• best practices on the governance and management of shared F/P/T public health applications.

Events

Infoway Information Session, May 2006
PDF 398 KB

For more information, contact publichealthpractice@phac-aspc.gc.ca
or call toll free: 1-877-430-9995.