America's Health Responders - U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE COMMISSIONED CORPS
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Commissioned Corps officers on team honored by Secretary Sebelius at HHSinnovative award ceremony
 

 
From left to right, Indian Health Service Director, Yvette Roubideaux, MD, MPH, CAPT James Cheek CAPT John Redd, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Ms. Amy Groom, CAPT James Hayslett, and DHHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr.
 
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recognized this year’s winners of the HHSinnovates program that welcomes ingenuity and creativity to achieve successful service. One of the three “Secretary’s Pick” awards was Using Electronic Health Records for Public Health Surveillance submitted by the Indian Health Service (IHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) develop a real time HINI surveillance system to target prevention. Key contributors, CAPT John Redd, CAPT James Cheek and CAPT James Hayslett are alumni of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Electronic Health Records in Action
Reprinted from news release, March 31, 2011

Expanding the use of health information technology, specifically the electronic health record (EHR), is a pillar of the Affordable Care Act. EHR systems can help detect and monitor public health emergencies and focus responses by integrating patient care and public health.

In response to the 2009 influenza pandemic, IHS leveraged its existing EHR, through collaboration with CDC and FDA, to rapidly develop, validate, and implement a national electronic surveillance system covering over 60 percent of its facilities serving the historically vulnerable American Indian and Alaska Native population.

This new surveillance system, the IHS Influenza Awareness System (IIAS), provided timely information on influenza-like illness, influenza vaccination rates, and potential adverse events following vaccination. Its results allowed for strategic allocation of limited resources during the pandemic. Because it used existing, routinely collected EHR data, the system accomplished these outcomes at minimal cost.

IIAS reports are posted weekly at www.ihs.gov/flu. IHS is currently expanding this scalable system to include other health conditions. The IIAS highlights how EHR systems can improve public health responses by providing timely health information to both clinicians in the field and agency decision makers.
 
Key contributorsSupporting contributors
CAPT John Redd, IHS CAPT Michael Bruce, CDC
RADM Theresa Cullen, IHS CAPT Ralph Bryan (Retired), CDC
CAPT James Hayslett, IHS CAPT Tom Hennessey, CDC
CAPT James Cheek, IHS  Dr. Hector Izurieta, FDA 
LCDR James Keck, CDC Cheyenne Jim, CDC
Ms. Amy Groom, CDC CAPT Susan Karol, IHS 
Dr. Larry Layne, IHS Nancy Kuchar, CDC
Dr. Yandong Qiang, FDA
LCDR Anil Suryaprasad, CDC
Dr. Andrea Sutherland, FDA
 

 
From left to right, CAPT John Redd, CAPT James Cheek, CAPT James Hayslett, Ms. Amy Groom, RADM Christopher Halliday, Chief of Staff, and RADM Boris Lushniak, Deputy Surgeon General.
 
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