Emerging Pathogens Initiative (EPI)

The Emerging Pathogens Initiative (EPI) database contains emerging pathogens information from the local Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs). The EPI software package allows the VA to track emerging pathogens on the national level without additional data entry at the local level. The results from aggregation of data can be shared with the appropriate public health authorities including non-VA and the private health care sector allowing national planning, formulation of intervention strategies, and resource allocations. EPI is designed to automatically collect data on emerging diseases for Veterans Affairs Central Office (VACO) to analyze. The data is sent to the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) from all Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) systems for initial processing and combination with related workload data. VACO data retrieval and analysis is then carried out. The AITC creates two file structures both in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) file format, which are used as a source of data for the Veterans Affairs Headquarters (VAHQ) Infectious Diseases Program Office. These files are manipulated and used for analysis and reporting by the National Infectious Diseases Service. Emerging Pathogens (as characterized by VACO) act as triggers for data acquisition activities in the automated program. The system retrieves relevant, predetermined, patient-specific information in the form of a Health Level Seven (HL7) message that is transmitted to the central data repository at the AITC. Once at that location, the data is converted to a SAS dataset for analysis by the VACO National Infectious Diseases Service. Before data transmission an Emerging Pathogens Verification Report is produced for the local sites to review, verify, and make corrections as needed. After data transmission to the AITC it is added to the EPI database.

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Field Value
accessLevel non-public
bureauCode {029:15}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_@id https://www.data.va.gov/data.json
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
dataQuality true
identifier VA-VHA-PCS-007
issued 2017-07-26
landingPage https://www.data.va.gov/d/39pc-24dr
language {en-US}
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2020-12-01
programCode {029:041}
publisher Department of Veterans Affairs
resource-type Dataset
rights Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protected health information.
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 26f78f7f507a1d0a32c0c9de5cf92e9d5821c71d
source_schema_version 1.1
systemOfRecords https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-05-11/pdf/2012-11487.pdf
temporal 1998-01-01T05:00:00Z/2014-12-31T05:00:00Z
theme {"Basic Statistics",Use,"and Operational Data"}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • disease
  • emerging
  • geo
  • geoss
  • infectious
  • national
  • north-america
  • pathogen
  • patient
  • sas
  • united-states
  • va
  • veteran
isopen True
license_id cc-zero
license_title Creative Commons CCZero
license_url http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-zero
maintainer VHA Open Data
maintainer_email vhaopendata@va.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-21T07:37:18.673646
metadata_modified 2025-11-21T07:37:18.673650
notes <p>The Emerging Pathogens Initiative (EPI) database contains emerging pathogens information from the local Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs). The EPI software package allows the VA to track emerging pathogens on the national level without additional data entry at the local level. The results from aggregation of data can be shared with the appropriate public health authorities including non-VA and the private health care sector allowing national planning, formulation of intervention strategies, and resource allocations. EPI is designed to automatically collect data on emerging diseases for Veterans Affairs Central Office (VACO) to analyze. The data is sent to the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) from all Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) systems for initial processing and combination with related workload data. VACO data retrieval and analysis is then carried out. The AITC creates two file structures both in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) file format, which are used as a source of data for the Veterans Affairs Headquarters (VAHQ) Infectious Diseases Program Office. These files are manipulated and used for analysis and reporting by the National Infectious Diseases Service. Emerging Pathogens (as characterized by VACO) act as triggers for data acquisition activities in the automated program. The system retrieves relevant, predetermined, patient-specific information in the form of a Health Level Seven (HL7) message that is transmitted to the central data repository at the AITC. Once at that location, the data is converted to a SAS dataset for analysis by the VACO National Infectious Diseases Service. Before data transmission an Emerging Pathogens Verification Report is produced for the local sites to review, verify, and make corrections as needed. After data transmission to the AITC it is added to the EPI database.</p>
num_resources 0
num_tags 16
title Emerging Pathogens Initiative (EPI)