Case study: Investment in surveillance tools - the SIGNAL program

The Notifiable Conditions Information Management System (NCIMS) is the foundational system used by local health districts and Health Protection NSW to support the COVID-19 pandemic response, as well as other routinely notifiable conditions. As the pandemic progressed, the volume of data processed by and collected in NCIMS increased exponentially and the system was tested at critical points. Rapid design and development of tactical COVID-specific systems and significant infrastructure scale-up was required to maintain core functionality of the system, but it was clear that significant investment was needed to future proof the routine notifiable conditions system.

A program of work to transform surveillance and response capabilities was approved in May 2021. The vision of the SIGNAL program is a NSW Health system that is integrated and digitally enabled to respond rapidly and effectively to communicable diseases and events of public health significance. Over the next three years, work will be undertaken to develop enhanced and automated systems that can support the response to large-scale public health threats focused on:

• rapid and more accurate disease surveillance and outbreak response capabilities
• ability to flex rapidly and ensure a timely response to large-scale public health threats
• public health decision making
• informed decision making through access to rapid operational metrics
• optimised outbreak response times through improved automation of current systems and processes
• coordinated and scalable response
• ability to integrate relevant complex data to support timely decision making
• appropriate resourcing and a skilled workforce
• the experience of the NSW population
• timely, personalised communications with people at risk
• timely and targeted communications to the community.

This work will be undertaken in partnership with eHealth NSW to ensure the implementation of technical solutions can be achieved in a model that fits with the organisational structures and requirements of Health Protection NSW.

While NSW has strong disease surveillance systems to respond to outbreaks, the overwhelming scale and breadth of the public health response to COVID-19 highlighted gaps in the system, as well as highlighted opportunities for how BAU responses could be enhanced. To support and maintain public health response capacity, it is important to invest in people and technology to streamline and integrate systems and processes that can be scaled as and when required.