Welcome to the ESP Project web site, Wiki, and source code (Subversion) repository

This is a web site for the Electronic medical record Support for Public health (ESP) project, part of a CDC funded Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics. The ESP project is a collaboration between Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Atrius Health, and the Channing Laboratory of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

ESP is a secure, automated system that analyzes electronic medical record (EMR) data to identify and report patients with notifiable diseases to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The system was initially deployed at Atrius Health in January 2007 and has been operating continuously since, providing valid, comprehensive, secure, automated reporting, described in this MMWR brief report and in other publications available below.

The growing use of electronic medical record systems (EMRs) permits efficient re-use of data already being collected by clinicians during routine private practice, offering an unparalleled opportunity to improve public health practice. Information held in EMR systems includes diagnoses, procedures, laboratory test, and treatment information, as well as patient demographic data. In order to use this valuable information, we have developed systems and software, to permit secure, simple, robust, messaging from electronic medical record systems to public health authorities.

The system currently reports cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, pelvic inflammatory disease, acute hepatitis A, acute hepatitis B, acute hepatitis C, and active tuberculosis. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, we have created and validated algorithms to identify each of these conditions using combinations of laboratory orders and results, ICD9 diagnostic codes, and medication prescriptions. Algorithms to detect and report additional diseases are currently under development.

Project Details and resources

  • FAQ for Frequently Askable Questions and Answers
  • Licensing - ESP is a CDC funded project and all source code and documentation are available under the LGPL. We are not lawyers, but we are very serious about Licenses - please read about Licensing of material on this web site. ESP source code is freely available (see below). We welcome potential collaborations including other academic and public health informatics groups as well as commercial companies wishing to learn more about how they can work with us under the terms of the LGPL.
  • Obtaining the source (after you've read and understood the license!)

For Linux boxen, SVN checkout of the source is easy if you have subversion installed (and it nearly always is or should be) - create a suitable directory and from there try: 

svn co http://esphealth.org/svn/ESP/trunk

See Obtaining a copy of the source for more detail

  • Future plans

Future

Recent publications

Automated Detection and Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Using Electronic Medical Records Versus Passive Surveillance: Massachusetts, June 2006--July 2007 PDF
Electronic medical record Support for Public health (ESP: Automated Detection and Reporting of Statutory Notifiable Diseases to Public Health Authorities PDF
Invited Commentary: Automated Public Health Reporting-- A Familiar but Cantankerous Friend PDF
Klompas et al. Respond: Automated Public Health Reporting-- Possible with a Coalition of the Willing PDF

Key personnel in the project include:

  • Richard Platt - principal investigator (Richard_Platt at harvard dot edu)
  • Ross Lazarus - ESP informatics lead and ESP:VAERS principal investigator (Ross.Lazarus at channing dot harvard dot edu)
  • Michael Klompas - clinical lead (mklompas at partners dot org)
  • Julie Dunn - administrative lead (Julie_Dunn at harvardpilgrim dot org)

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.

Attachments