PHER Domain Model
(this is just a placeholder, a snippet from the current DAM document)
Data Model
Public Health Reporting includes those activities in which circumstances that are dangerous to the health of a population or group are reported to authorities whose responsibility it is to address those circumstances. The authorities that are reported to could be government bodies, e.g. departments of health, or they could be private bodies, e.g., the infection control body within a health care organization. This reporting differs from a clinician\’s recording of a patient\’s disease, condition, or problem, because the goal is to use the information in a context beyond the care of that particular patient. Within HL7, the Public Health Reporting domain includes: The reporting of incidents affecting persons receiving health care services (patients) when that reporting is designed to influence care behavior and hence to improve the care that is provided.
- Legally or customarily mandated reporting of dangerous conditions, e.g., infectious disease, to public health bodies.
- Legally or customarily mandated reporting of potential and actual adverse events to regulatory and/or public health bodies. This reporting is normally associated with products whose sale is regulated by law.
- Requests - and the dialog pursuant to such requests - for investigations into incidents deemed to have a potential of affecting the public health.
Essentially, the model states that an event happens, based on a constellation of causes. That event may have an impact on a person or other living subject (patient) that can lead to some sort of outcome, e.g., long term injury. In some cases, the trigger for reporting is an event that may or may not lead to an impact on a patient. In other cases, reporting is triggered by an observed impact on a patient, e.g., a case of infectious disease. In both situations, there are causes, an incident seen as the proximate cause for the impact on the patient, and the potential for harm to the patient.
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