Members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) electronic communications development team visited UNMC Wednesday to install portions of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) base module. 
Steven Hinrichs, M.D., director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory at UNMC, and State Epidemiologist Tom Safranek, M.D., are assisting the CDC in developing functionality of the system.
Nebraska and Tennessee were recently selected as the two national sites to participate in the NEDSS program as alpha development sites. In software development, the conceptual stage is called alpha, with a subsequent phase called beta testing. After a new system has passed beta testing, it is released to the market.
A number of highly technical challenges remains and the CDC team is working with Jeff Gehring, UMA clinical lab/ITS specialist and project manager, and Mark Bohlsen, UNMC ITS specialist, to work through issues related to security, server architecture and system integration.
Top photo: From left, State Epidemiologist Tom Safranek, M.D.; Steve Hinrichs, M.D., director of the state public health laboratory; Al Washington, Sergei Li and Jim Vaughan from the CDC; and Felicita Medallia, assistant to Dr. Safranek.
Bottom photo: Al Washington, CDC electronic specialist, begins to explain the NEDSS installation process.