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The Communicable Disease Information System (CDIS) developed by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health has been fully commissioned. The system enhances the capability of the local healthcare system in surveillance and control of communicable diseases for better protection of the health of Hong Kong people.
Officiating at the CDIS launching ceremony today (May 6), the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, said that today's launch was an important milestone in public health protection in Hong Kong. He noted that the full commissioning of the CDIS will equip the CHP with strengthened emergency preparedness against major outbreaks to stem the spread of disease in collaboration with the public and private medical organisations and community partners.
The CDIS is designed to facilitate the infectious disease notification process and provide advanced and integrated information technology infrastructure connecting existing disease surveillance and control system components on the same platform for the CHP to more effectively capture and analyse any trend of spread of infectious disease in the community. The system links up major sentinel stakeholders in Hong Kong so that data collected from different sources can be analysed in a timely manner and efficiently disseminated for swift surveillance and control action through an enhanced platform.
Characterised by its "instant", "inclusive" and "interactive" functions and embracing different aspects of public health surveillance, disease control, emergency preparedness, outbreak investigation and management, the CDIS enables instant capture of comprehensive data in real time for speedy analysis. It supports different stages of epidemiological investigations and assessments on sporadic and outbreak cases, and enables instant enquiry of clinical and laboratory data from the Hospital Authority (HA) for enhancing the efficiency of epidemiological investigations.
In addition, the system provides regular feedback to data providers, thus facilitating timely and effective exchange of intelligence on disease surveillance and control so that relevant organisations may make appropriate arrangements in response to possible risks as necessitated by circumstances.
Delivering his speech at the ceremony, Dr Ko expressed his gratitude to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for its generous donation for the development of the CDIS. He also thanked the collaborative sentinel partners, including the HA, private medical practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners, residential homes for the elderly and child care centres/kindergartens, for their support in the operation of the CDIS. Their active participation and contribution of data to the CDIS is of paramount importance to the CHP's smooth work in drawing up effective sentinel strategies against infectious diseases, Dr Ko said.
Also officiating at today's launching ceremony were Steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Mr Silas Yang; the HA Chairman, Professor John Leong; the Permanent Secretary for Food and Health (Health), Mr Richard Yuen; the Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan; and the Controller of the CHP, Dr Leung Ting-hung.
Ends/Friday, May 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:35
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