Introduction

The Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET) comprises three platforms that conduct population-based public health surveillance for laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations associated with COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among children and adults. Surveillance is conducted through a network of acute care hospitals in select counties in 13 states. The surveillance platforms for COVID-19, Influenza, and RSV (known as COVID-NET, FluSurv-NET, and RSV-NET, respectively) cover more than 29 million people and include an estimated 8-10% of the U.S. population.

This guide leverages the MedMorph Reference Architecture along with other relevant existing health data and exchange standards to provide the profiles and necessary extensions required for patient-level data exchange on persons hospitalized with respiratory viruses to public health surveillance partners in RESP-NET. The goal is to improve the availability of EHR data for public health surveillance of hospitalized persons with influenza and other respiratory viruses and reduce the burden of data collection on surveillance officers and healthcare facilities and complement ongoing CDC data modernization initiatives.

The Making Electronic Data More Available for Research and Public Health (MedMorph) project seeks to advance public health and patient-centered outcomes by using emerging health data and exchange standards, such as Health Level 7 (HL7^®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR^®) and Clinical Quality Language (CQL), to develop and implement an interoperable solution that will enable access to clinical data. The MedMorph project fits within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strategic imperative of transforming how data are collected, used, and shared through modern Information Technology (IT) capabilities to save lives and improve health. The MedMorph project is funded by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (PCORTF) and executed by the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS) Public Health Informatics Office (PHIO) to advance research and public health goals.

The MedMorph project aims to leverage the maturation of standards and requirements for certification of health IT by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) that underpin many electronic health records (EHRs). Standards and regulations such as FHIR, the ONC 2015 Edition Common Clinical Data Set (CCDS), 2015 Edition Cures Update - United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) Version 1, February 2020 and standardized application programming interfaces (API) for patient services have created a health IT environment that is ripe for developing standards-based scalable and extensible solutions to overcome interoperability challenges.

The RESP-NET Content Implementation Guide (IG) specifies how the MedMorph Reference Architecture (RA) IG is leveraged to enable health care organizations to implement RESP-NET Use Cases outlined in the IG.

Technical Overview

The main sections of this IG are:

• Use Cases - The use cases provide business context for the IG and information that implementers should familiarize themselves with prior to reading the remainder of the IG.
• Detailed Specification - The formal specification identifying the requirements for the implementers.
• Downloads - Allows downloading a copy of this implementation guide and other useful information.