The California departments of Technology (CDT) and Public Health (CDPH) are seeking “innovative technology solutions to help improve the COVID-19 Disease Reporting System for COVID-19 lab results,” the agencies said in a notice released Aug. 12. The challenge-based COVID-19 Reporting System procurement is already through its application and question-and-answer segments and, according to a March 13 PowerPoint presentation, is moving from proof-of-concept demonstrations into evaluation. That’s swift progress about two weeks after a major data glitch sparked under-reporting of COVID numbers, and it became clear a new solution would be needed to issues with the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE), the state’s database for reporting on infectious diseases. Among the takeaways:
• The state seeks “a robust and automated solution to collect, store and publish COVID-19 electronic lab reporting and case data for our constituents,” per tech.covid19.ca.gov. CDPH currently collects residents’ lab and case case data from labs nationwide – the majority “reported electronically through an HL7 SOAP API gateway and other formats including CSV via SFTP and API.” The remainder are reported manually, matched to existing patient records and converted into cases in CalREDIE.
This, the state said, presents “several challenges with the high volume and inconsistent quality” of the data including incomplete fields, duplicate reports and incorrect or incomplete matching information. These challenges in turn can lead to delays in identifying positive COVID cases; a “labor-intensive process” to derive accurate case counts and resolve duplicate case records; and necessitate manual intervention. Marlon Paulo, CDT deputy director of statewide technology procurement, highlighted the initiative in a recent LinkedIn post.
In a statement to Techwire, Paulo said: “CDT and CDPH have been working in partnership on the COVID-19 Reporting System competitive procurement. The successful partnership will move forward this important procurement to improve the state’s overall efficiency in collecting, processing, and publishing actual COVID-19 lab and case data.”
• The state is hopeful the new solution will meet needs including improving overall efficiency and cutting the time needed to collect, process and publish actual aggregated COVID-19 lab and case data; boost the accuracy and efficiency of daily case counts; offer the ability to ingest data in formats including HL7, CSV, fax and mail; transform them into a standard format and automate de-duplication; and improve automated patient matching and automate the reconciliation of multiple lab results per individual. Officials also want the new solution to offer audit, traceability, and diagnostic capabilities; migrate and convert data; provide role-based access to data and reports; and comply with PHI regulations on publicly shared data as well as privacy, information and security requirements.
• Data transaction levels are high, according to the PowerPoint, presented by CDPH’s Dr. William Wheeler and Andy Wu, chief enterprise architect, and CDT’s Paulo, on Aug. 13 at a bidders’ conference. The volume of data is 3 to 4 terabytes, including 7 million to 8 million lab results and 500,000 case records. The estimated number of total daily transactions via input/upload is around 150,000, with daily reporting coming in various formats from 320 laboratory submitters or sites.
• The procurement is being conducted under Public Contract Code 6611, which allows negotiation with vendors – and which state Chief Information Officer Amy Tong has cited as a basis for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI2). The estimated value and duration of any contract is unclear; however, based on the state’s timeline laid out in the PowerPoint, it would appear to already be in Phase 2 of a three-phase procurement. Phase 1 involved initial response submissions, evaluation and the notification of up to five bidders that they would be advancing to Phase 2. Phase 2, which wraps Aug. 19 with evaluations and notifications of advancement to Phase 3, involves proofs of concept demonstrations. Phase 3 involves statement of work development, negotiations and a contract award on Aug. 24.
