JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Epidemiologic surveillance incorporates technology to provide safe, fast and trustworthy digital solutions for the control of public health and is especially efficacious in the Mandatory Reporting of Infectious Diseases. These are listed according to international agreements and national norms. The enforceability of the declaration must be accompanied by adequate processes for a timely, clear, sure and true way, from the start when a consultant is met by a health professional (notifier) until the declaration is reported to the Health Authority so as to make decisions which will impact the public health of a territory. Among the processes used to fulfill this declaration are the manual mode or a totally technologized method. The aggressive propagation force of some diseases imposes incorporating technological advances to provide information in real time, so a manual method is discarded as it is absolutely inefficient. The purpose of this article is to describe the architecture of the EPIVIGILA platform for Mandatory Reporting of Infectious Diseases, detailing the database construction process, its technologic analysis and its impact in the control of Chilean public health. EPIVIGILA’s strengths are the quality of its data and therefore the credibility of the provided information. This is achieved by a set of validations that decrease or annul possible errors. Its usefulness is constantly tested, as new diseases or the re-emergence of others are unforeseeable and, therefore, as a living system, it requires a recursive, progressive and constant learning process.