February 2023

GaHIN plays an important role in ensuring the Georgia Department of Public Health receives needed and/or required health information for public health registries while streamlining the reporting process for healthcare providers.

Public health registries are:

• A collection of information about individuals, usually focused on a specific diagnosis or condition;
• The availability of this data at the state level allows health researchers to analyze geographic, racial and other differences that provide clues that point to risk factors;
• This data also helps in determining where early detection, educational, or other programs should be directed.

The COVID-19 health registry brought global attention to the practice of receiving and recording public health information. Since 2020, GaHIN has submitted 1.3+ million patient encounters and lab results that meet the criteria for COVID-19 reporting. This information is extracted from the EHR of participating hospitals and submitted by GaHIN. 

Electronic Case Reporting

Another option from GaHIN for public health reporting is through Electronic Case Reporting (eCR). This automated service uses the functionality of GeorgiaDirect to eliminate the burden of manual reporting by securely transferring patient and clinical information to public health agencies.

eCR benefits everyone involved in case reporting. It provides timely and more complete data than manual reporting and decreases the burden on both healthcare facilities and public health staff. There are currently more than 100 conditions that can be reported using eCR, including opioid overdose, foodborne illnesses and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

The eCR runs in the background of a GaHIN member’s EHR, capturing and reporting required information. That information is sent to GaHIN via secure direct messaging, then routed to the CDC and DPH once validated.

Public Health Registries

GaHIN is in the process of finalizing electronic submission for several public health registries, including:

• Georgia Registry of Immunization Transactions and Services (GRITS)
• eLabs Submission (via SendSS Gateway ~ State Electronic Notifiable Disease Surveillance System)
• Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry (GCCR)
• Alzheimer’s Registry
• Birth Defects Registry

The Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry offers an excellent case study of the efficiencies that can be attained through electronic reporting. 

Dr. Denise Hines Speaks at Health Equity Conference

GaHIN’s Executive Director, Dr. Denise Hines, spoke at the 16^th Health Disparities Conference at Xavier University of Louisiana. This year's conference, titled Public Health Transformations to Achieve Health Equity, included discussions on community engagement, policy, practice, education workforce and science. Dr. Hines’ session addressed “The Role of Health Informatics in Achieving Health Equity.”

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