ABSTRACT
This article reports on a comparative study of the national notifiable infectious diseases surveillance systems currently employed in the United States of America, Australia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the aim ofdeveloping a modified system specific to the needs of the Iranian health system. Features of the surveillance systems examined in each country included: official data gathering structures; types of data collected; case definition and classification criteria; data collection processes; data analysis methods; disease classification systems; data dissemination and distribution methods; data quality control; and confidentiality procedures and guidelines. After consolidating the data, a model for an Iranian notifiable infectious diseases surveillance system was developed and was tested by the Delphi method in 3 stages.
Subject(s)
Communicable Diseases/epidemiology , Disease Notification/methods , Population Surveillance/methods , Australia/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases/diagnosis , Confidentiality , Cross-Sectional Studies , Data Collection/methods , Data Interpretation, Statistical , Delphi Technique , Guidelines as Topic , Health Care Reform , Humans , Information Dissemination , International Classification of Diseases/classification , Iran/epidemiology , Needs Assessment , Social Change , United States/epidemiology , Vocabulary, ControlledABSTRACT
This article reports on a comparative study of the national notifiable infectious diseases surveillance systems currently employed in the United States of America, Australia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the aim of developing a modified system specific to the needs of the Iranian health system. Features of the surveillance systems examined in each country included: official data gathering structures; types of data collected; case definition and classification criteria; data collection processes; data analysis methods; disease classification systems; data dissemination and distribution methods; data quality control; and confidentiality procedures and guidelines. After consolidating the data, a model for an Iranian notifiable infectious diseases surveillance system was developed and was tested by the Delphi method in 3 stages