This is a collection of documents that specifies a set of requirements
for developing an information system for use in state and local STD prevention
and control programs. These documents are not meant to be a highly detailed
and specific set of requirements for building a particular system; since
it would be impossible to address the different requirements of state
and local health departments. However, they are designed to be a solid starting
place for designing a system. They identify critical components for any STD
prevention and control program information system (STD information system )
and describe STD prevention and control business processes in a way that facilitate
communicting system requirements to a systems developer.
Overview (Overview.doc) – provides
brief descriptions of each document.
Requirements Summary (STD_Requirements_Summary.doc) – lays
out a scope and vision for an STD information system. It
provides an overview of STD prevention program business processes
and identifies which processes fall within the scope of an automated
system and which do not. It
identifies key stakeholders in the process, profiles of various business
roles within an STD prevention program, and a glossary of terms used
within an STD prevention program and throughout the requirements
package.
Functional Requirements (STD_Functional_Requirements.doc) – lays
out in straightforward terms what functionality an STD information
system should provide in order to be effective. The
document is organized into functional areas and consists of a series
of statements such as “The system shall provide the ability to
create, view, update and delete client records as defined in the
STD Data Elements spreadsheet”.
Use Cases (Informal) (UC...doc, 14 files) – these
use a specific format to document standard STD prevention
program business practices. The
type of format used in these documents is best known as either an
informal use case or a usage scenario. The steps in each business
process are documented with a basic course of action along with multiple
alternate courses of action, depending on the process being documented.
STD Information System Data Elements (STD_Date_Elements.xls) – documents
the data elements needed to support the functional requirements laid
out in the previous document. The spreadsheet
is split into several worksheets based on the functional type of
data (client, investigation, laboratory, etc.) being documented.
The spreadsheet includes definitions, allowable values, and field-level
business rules.
STD Information System Business Rules (STD_Business_Rules.doc) – contains
business rules that should be enforced by the system to ensure both
proper system functioning and data integrity and accuracy. The
document is organized by functional area and consists of statements
such as “No client record can be added without performing a client
record search first”.
STD Information System Reports (.PDFs) – contain
examples of canned reports that the system should support. This
list of reports is not meant to be exhaustive but does contain reports
that were identified as being very important for any program to have
access to.
Appendix A (Appendix_A.doc) – consists
of a document entitled “STD
Epi Networks”. The purpose of this document is to provide
a simple but relatively complete explanation of the process of building
an Epi network of related individuals through the process of interviewing
and identifying partners and clusters to known cases of disease.
This process is one of the more difficult ones to describe to a
layman (such as an IT developer). This document was designed to
shorten that learning curve and to make it more likely that any system
developed will be able to effectively support this critical STD
prevention business process.
Appendix B (Appendix_B.pdf) – contains an Entity
Relationship Diagram (ERD) that documents one possible logical model
for a relational database to support an STD Control information system.
This diagram does not specify a complete model but focuses in on a subject
area entitled Public Health Activity, which documents a model used to
support STD-specific activities such as STD investigations, interviews,
Epi networks, etc.
Appendix C (Appendix_C.pdf) – contains
an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) that documents a possible logical
model for another subject area within an STD Control data model. The
model in Appendix C focuses on the related data types (laboratory tests,
treatment, etc.) and how they can be associated with other entities
within the model.