Past Projects
Digital Bridge is a multi-sector collaboration that incubates projects focused on improving data exchange between healthcare and public health. As an incubator, it lays foundational elements in place (i.e., gaining stakeholder buy-in, designing technical infrastructure, etc.) that prepare the use case for adoption and national scale-up under the management of a separate entity.
eCR is a collaborative initiative of CDC, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). For more information on electronic case reporting, visit the CDC eCR website.
Electronic Case Reporting (eCR)
Historic Context
As its first project, Digital Bridge partners designed a nationally scalable, multi-jurisdictional approach to electronic case reporting (eCR). eCR is the automated generation and transmission of case reports from electronic health record (EHR) systems used in healthcare to public health agencies for review and action. Stakeholders developed this approach to address siloed, labor-intensive data exchange processes that created barriers to providers reporting infectious disease cases in compliance with state and local laws.
The premise of Digital Bridge was born from a previous initiative–the Public Health Community Platform (PHCP)–that sought to connect fragmented information systems and manage data flow efficiently by leveraging shared infrastructure. Led by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the PHCP built a community of stakeholders who worked together towards common solutions for ways to use data that would improve public health surveillance.
The eCR Use Case
Continuing in the PHCP’s footsteps, Digital Bridge partners built a technical approach to eCR that leverages existing EHRs to automatically flag potentially reportable disease cases and create a case report. It is a real-time, automated process that eliminates guesswork and alleviates burdensome manual reporting processes for healthcare professionals. It is system-agnostic and adoptable by any size organization and data provider.
Because there are legal implications for sharing and using patient information, Digital Bridge collaborators also worked with health IT and privacy experts to develop the legal framework and agreements required to implement the eCR technical approach. Eight demonstration sites in California, Houston, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York City, New York State and Utah were selected to pilot the Digital Bridge approach and share their experiences and lessons learned. Feedback was captured in an evaluation conducted for the Digital Bridge governance body.
eCR Transition
Onboarding to eCR transitioned fully to CDC, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists in Fall of 2019. This team has been actively involved in the Digital Bridge eCR Project since the beginning and is dedicated to the continued growth and success of eCR implementation nationwide. These organizations continue to operate the cloud-based decision support intermediary and facilitate eCR between healthcare and public health agencies. For current information about eCR, visit CDC’s eCR website or contact the eCR team at ecr@cdc.gov.