PLoS ONE (Jan 2011)

Requirements and design of the PROSPER protocol for implementation of information infrastructures supporting pandemic response: a Nominal Group study.

  • Toomas Timpka,
  • Henrik Eriksson,
  • Elin A Gursky,
  • Magnus Strömgren,
  • Einar Holm,
  • Joakim Ekberg,
  • Olle Eriksson,
  • Anders Grimvall,
  • Lars Valter,
  • James M Nyce

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017941
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 3
p. e17941

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: Advanced technical systems and analytic methods promise to provide policy makers with information to help them recognize the consequences of alternative courses of action during pandemics. Evaluations still show that response programs are insufficiently supported by information systems. This paper sets out to derive a protocol for implementation of integrated information infrastructures supporting regional and local pandemic response programs at the stage(s) when the outbreak no longer can be contained at its source. METHODS: Nominal group methods for reaching consensus on complex problems were used to transform requirements data obtained from international experts into an implementation protocol. The analysis was performed in a cyclical process in which the experts first individually provided input to working documents and then discussed them in conferences calls. Argument-based representation in design patterns was used to define the protocol at technical, system, and pandemic evidence levels. RESULTS: The Protocol for a Standardized information infrastructure for Pandemic and Emerging infectious disease Response (PROSPER) outlines the implementation of information infrastructure aligned with pandemic response programs. The protocol covers analyses of the community at risk, the response processes, and response impacts. For each of these, the protocol outlines the implementation of a supporting information infrastructure in hierarchical patterns ranging from technical components and system functions to pandemic evidence production. CONCLUSIONS: The PROSPER protocol provides guidelines for implementation of an information infrastructure for pandemic response programs both in settings where sophisticated health information systems already are used and in developing communities where there is limited access to financial and technical resources. The protocol is based on a generic health service model and its functions are adjusted for community-level analyses of outbreak detection and progress, and response program effectiveness. Scientifically grounded reporting principles need to be established for interpretation of information derived from outbreak detection algorithms and predictive modeling.