Hospital electronic medical record-based public health surveillance system deployed during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Background: Several computer biosurveillance systems are in place to detect events of public health (PH) significance; however, most lack access to timely and detailed patient-level data and investigation of alerts places a strain on PH resources.

Methods: Hospital-based infection control professionals led a multi-disciplinary team to develop a computer rule-based system that relies on the patient's electronic medical record. The rules operated on HL7 messages transmitted by clinical computing systems and encompassed a variety of types of patient-level data, including laboratory test ordering and results, radiology ordering and reports, emergency room and outpatient clinic visits, and hospital admissions.