HEALTH

The Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH) has integrated Cognos enterprise business intelligence (EBI) solutions into the Pennsylvania Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA NEDSS), a statewide system that provides a new way to monitor, analyze and report diseases and investigative findings via the Internet. Cognos, is the world leader in BI and corporate performance management solutions. PA NEDSS is part of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), which is a national initiative driven by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve the timeliness, completeness, accuracy, and uniformity of surveillance data. The NEDSS system tracks data on communicable and infectious disease epidemiology, as well as childhood-lead disease. As the reporting and analysis component of NEDSS, Cognos BI enables the state's 422 public health investigators to access near real-time data to monitor occurrences of disease at an aggregate level and drill down into detail to analyze specific cases by disease type or by geography. "Cognos has enabled us to extend the reach of information, as well as reduce the amount of time required to produce reports. With Cognos these requests take only minutes," said Mary Benner, chief information officer, Pennsylvania Department of Health. "We've built a single, integrated Web application that enables everyone to have access to the same information simultaneously, while maintaining the levels of data security within PA NEDSS and protecting the privacy of citizens. Cognos is a key component in the PA NEDSS system, providing a powerful reporting and analysis solution." Eventually, information from the PA NEDSS will assist program managers and executive managers in determining accurate funding for public health programs and to determine if education or funding is required for certain geographies, or demographic groups. "The ability to trend and report on accurate and up-to-date data about disease occurrences means that the PA DOH will be able to spot potential problems early on and take quick investigative action," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions, Cognos. "By breaking down islands of data and making it available securely via the Web, government health departments are seeing increased organizational effectiveness and increased visibility throughout all departments."