INFORMATICS
The Evolution of Informatics Technical Assistance
by Laura Carlton, manager, Informatics; Melanie Kourbage, MA, J Michael Consulting and Rachel Shepherd, specialist, Informatics
Over the past decade, APHL has delivered
technical assistance (TA) to public health
laboratories, public health agencies and
their partners to strengthen technical
infrastructure, improve data management
capabilities and implement new data
exchanges. The original TA model design
focused on providing one-on-one support,
usually on site with a public health
partner. Taking the lessons learned over
the past 10 years, APHL has developed
some innovative new strategies to deliver
technical assistance.
Working Together
One of our most successful new models
is the “cohort approach,” which involves
working simultaneously with multiple
jurisdictions that are implementing
the same data exchange, instead of
maintaining several one-off engagements.
With this model, APHL’s TA team is able to
guide a group of jurisdictions (anywhere
from 4–10, depending on the project)
through the onboarding process and into
production within 3-6 months. The cohort
approach works well for projects where a
large number of public health laboratories
or agencies need to implement the same
message feed over a given timeframe.
This group-style approach carries several
benefits. The TA team, jurisdiction
representatives and other stakeholders
have a single meeting on their calendar
rather than scattered check-ins with
each jurisdiction. The TA team’s project
manager facilitates regular check-ins
to discuss progress and work through
any challenges encountered. Whether
the messaging recipient is a web portal
on AIMS or a processing system at CDC,
project sponsors and subject matter
experts can effectively communicate
updates to all parties, troubleshoot
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
issues and answer questions in real-time.
Furthermore, the peer-to-peer discussions
that happen spontaneously lead to fruitful
exchanges of resources and tools. Each
member of the cohort is working toward
the same milestones, and jurisdictions
often are spurred to meet target dates as
a result of healthy competition. But the
ultimate goal of the cohort is to prepare
all of the participants for onboarding and
going into production.
What’s Next
In addition to the cohort approach,
which allows for the greatest breadth
of public health engagement, APHL
currently services four additional
technical assistance models that range
from guidance and tool development
to one-on-one, hands-on support for a
specific need. All of these models support
virtual or on-site technical assistance,
depending on the timing and complexity
of the project. Each project is different,
and the type and amount of technical
assistance needed and provided can vary
drastically depending on a laboratory’s
resources and technical infrastructure.
APHL Technical Assistance began in 2008
to facilitate electronic transmission of
flu surveillance data from laboratories to
CDC. Since then, the technical assistance
program has grown into a multi-faceted and
systematic initiative, providing multiple levels
of support in project management, business
analysis, terminology, technical architecture,
system integration, database development
and informatics training. For any given
project, the support needed determines the
type and number of subject matter experts.
In total, APHL has more than 20 team
members working to advance laboratory data
exchange capabilities.
To date, APHL has provided assistance in
some capacity to every state public health
laboratory and nearly every state public
health agency, as well as many local
public health laboratories and clinical
partners. All this is possible thanks to
an intricate network of support behind
the scenes. n
If you have a question or issue and would
like to see if APHL can help, please contact
[email protected].
APHL.org
Fall 2019 LAB MATTERS
5