NASCIO Awards

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

2009 Awards: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

RECIPIENT:
Illinois - Illinois- National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (I-NEDSS)

Illinois National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (I-NEDSS) is part of a national electronic disease reporting system that links health care providers, state and local public health agencies within Illinois, and provides data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Illinois state public health director, Dr. Damon T. Arnold explained; “Through this state-of-the-art system, we are gathering and analyzing data quickly and accurately. I-NEDSS is improving our ability to identify and track infectious diseases that might signal an emergency situation, whether it be naturally occurring or a terrorist attack.”

IDPH developed the I-NEDSS application to improve the ability of public health agencies to identify, track and respond to emerging disease outbreaks and bioterrorism threats. I-NEDSS allows for the entry of 77 reportable diseases with the ability to add more as regulations and requirements dictate. The addition of the electronic reporting functionality allows health care providers to enter data into the I-NEDSS, which increased both the timeliness and quality of information provided and decreased the reporting burden.

I-NEDSS provides tremendous efficiency over paper-based routing, because it facilitates electronic transfer of lab results from laboratories and case reports from health care providers. Through I-NEDSS, the volume of cases handled is running approximately twice what was handled using a paper based system. A centralized repository used by I-NEDSS ensures that public health agencies have immediate access to data whether entered manually or electronically.

I-NEDSS received 2007 HIMSS Davies Award for IT excellence. In April 2009, the new functionality was added in I-NEDSS within 24 hours to keep track of H1N1 outbreaks. In summer 2009, H1N1 module was enhanced to prepare for the anticipated fall H1N1 epidemic. I-NEDSS has provided Illinois a way to successfully identify disease outbreaks earlier which leads to improved disease prevention, greater community awareness, and a faster response to outbreaks.

"The Illinois National Electronic Disease Surveillance System is critical in responding to disease threats. Without this system, the Illinois Department of Public Health would not be able to track, contain, control, and report on serious diseases. I congratulate the team, both users and IT, for their creative and disciplined contribution to public health. Recognition by NASCIO is a worthy endorsement that our Director’s vision and the team’s work have helped to transform our Agency."
James A. Driscoll, Chief Information Officer, Department of Public Health, State of Illinois

FINALISTS:
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Tennessee
Enterprise Storage, Backup/Recovery, and Tape Virtualization

Utah
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Across Government Boundaries

OTHER NOMINATIONS:
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California
CalFire - Computer-Aided Dispatch

Oregon
State of Oregon's Enterprise Business Continuity Planning Program

Texas
Texas Universities recover from Hurricane Ike

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