JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Passive surveillance is the principle method of sexually transmitted infection (STI) and blood borne virus (BBV) surveillance in Australia whereby positive cases of select STIs and BBVs and are notified to state and territory health departments. A major limitation of passive surveillance is that it only collects information on positive cases and notifications are heavily dependent on testing patterns. Denominator testing data are important in the interpretation of notifications.

Objective:

This study aims to establish a national pathology laboratory surveillance system, part of a larger national sentinel surveillance system called ACCESS (the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance). ACCESS is designed to utilise testing denominator data to understanding trends in case reporting and monitoring the uptake and outcomes of testing for STIs and BBVs.

Methods:

ACCESS involves a range of clinical sites and pathology laboratories each with a separate method of recruitment, data extraction and data processing; this paper includes pathology laboratory sites only. First established in 2007 for chlamydia only, ACCESS expanded in 2012 to capture all diagnostic and clinical monitoring tests for STIs and BBVs initially from pathology laboratories in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia and in 2016 expanded to capture data from at least one public and one private pathology laboratory in all Australian states and territories. The pathology laboratory sentinel surveillance system incorporates a longitudinal cohort design whereby all diagnostic and clinical monitoring tests for STIs and BBVs are collated from participating pathology laboratories in a line-listed format. An anonymous, unique identifier will be created for each individual that can be used to link patients within and between participating pathology laboratories and also to clinical services participating in ACCESS. Using electronically-extracted, line-listed data, several indicators for each STI and BBV can be calculated including the number of tests, unique number of individuals tested and re-tested, test yield, positivity, and incidence.

Results:

N/A

Conclusions:

The ACCESS pathology laboratory sentinel surveillance network is a unique surveillance system that collects data on diagnostic testing, management and care for and of STIs and BBVs that complements the ACCESS clinical network and enhances Australia’s capacity to respond to these infections.