Public-health labs work on data sharing, interoperability

The more than 600 public-health laboratories in the U.S. gather and report critical data on disease outbreaks and threats to national security, but data collection and IT infrastructure largely have been specific to a single public-health program such as HIV prevention or tuberculosis treatment. With this in mind, the Association of Public Health Laboratories joined with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch the Public Health Laboratories Interoperability Project (PHLIP) in September 2006.

"The primary outcome of this project has been the cost-effective acceleration of collaborative innovation to improve information sharing in the management of major public health challenges. Such innovation is imperative if our finite public health resources are to counter an ever-expanding myriad of challenges and threats to the public's well-being," a research team led by the AHPL writes in the current issue of the journal, Public Health Reports.

"PHLIP has leveraged a unique community-based collaborative process, catalyzing national capabilities to more effectively share electronic laboratory-generated diagnostic information and bolster the nation's health security," they add. "PHLIP is emerging as a model of accelerated innovation for the fields of laboratory science, technology and public health."