Experience with Message Format and Code Set Standards for Early Warning Public Health Surveillance Systems

Abstract Among the prerequisites for rapid development of early warning public health surveillance systems are standards for message formats and code sets. Researchers and practitioners of public-health surveillance (PHS) have been building on standards used in clinical information systems. We discuss standards in the context of our experience building the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance System (RODS), an early warning system for PHS that we have developed over the last three years.