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ISDS 2016 Conference Abstracts

Adoption of Public Health Readiness Guidelines for 
Meaningful Use
Eunice R. Santos*, Wesley McNeely, Biru Yang and Raouf R. Arafat
Office of Surveillance and Public Health Preparedness, Houston Health Department, Houston, TX, USA

Objective
To describe the challenges and lessons learned for public health 

and providers to successfully implement public health Meaningful 
Use readiness guidelines and navigate from intent to submission of 
production data while simultaneously upgrading surveillance systems.

Introduction
The Syndromic Surveillance Consortium of Southeast Texas 

(SSCSeT) consists of 13 stakeholders who represent 19 counties or 
jurisdictions in the Texas Gulf Coast region and receives health data 
from over 100 providers. The Houston Health Department (HHD) 
maintains and operates the syndromic surveillance system for the Gulf 
Coast region since 2007. In preparation for Meaningful Use (MU) the 
HHD has adapted and implemented guidance and recommendations 
from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of National 
Coordinator for Health Information Technology and others. HHDs 
goal is to make it possible for providers meet MU specification by 
facilitating the transmission of health related data for syndromic 
surveillance. The timing of the transition into MU overlaps with the 
change in syndromic surveillance systems.

Keywords
Meaningful Use; Health information technology; Syndromic 
surveillance; local health department

Acknowledgments
Houston Health Department would like to acknowledge the contributions 
from Ali Momin (HHD IT), Kavitha Gantha (HHD IT), Chris 
Meredith (Texas DSHS/TALHO), Bill Stephens(Tarrant County Public 
Health Department), DaveHeinbaugh (Tarrant County Public Health 
Department), Texas S2 (Texas DSHS syndromic surveillance group), and 
the Syndromic Surveillance Consortium of Southeast Texas (SSCSeT), 
CDC ESSENCE.

*Eunice R. Santos
E-mail: eunice.santos@houstontx.gov

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * 9(1):e80, 2017