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HKSAR Government Collects Infectious Disease Information
with XML and Hermes
Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China - 14 April 2005 - Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development
(CECID), University of Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to announce
the completion of the Notifiable Infectious Disease Information
Messaging System (NIDIMS) project for Department of Health
(DH), which is the health adviser of the Government of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and an executive
arm in health legislation and policy.
Rapid transmission of infectious diseases like SARS and
Meningitis as well as emerging diseases of Avian Flu pose
a tremendous threat to our community. Special attention
must be paid to the surveillance mechanism within HKSAR
and between HKSAR and neighboring regions. As a result,
DH invited CECID to set up a centralized and standardized
disease surveillance system based on XML and ebXML technologies.
The project involves designing a set of XML Schemas according
to the W3C XML Schema Recommendation and the XML Schema
Design and Management Guide (under the HKSARG Interoperability
Framework). These resulting Schemas are the underlying
architecture for information exchange on 28 regulatory
infectious diseases. Another objective of the project is
to develop a software application, the Notifiable Infectious
Disease Information Messaging System (NIDIMS) that supports
reliable and secure disease surveillance information collection.
The messaging framework is based on ebXML Messaging Service
version 2.0 (ebMS v2.0) specification developed under OASIS.
The flagship products of CECID, ebMail and Hermes (free
downloads at www.freebxml.org)
are deployed in the software for secure and reliable information
exchange. This system not only brings enormous economic
benefit to the Government and Hong Kong in terms of reducing
communication lead time and data entry errors, but also
improves the efficiency and effectiveness in communication
between DH and other healthcare service providers.
Deliverables of the NIDIMS Project are deployed in Hong
Kong Centre for Health Protection (www.chp.gov.hk/)
(CHP)'s central notification office (CNO) online
reporting system to help CHP strengthen Hong Kong’s
surveillance system and network for infectious diseases.
The CHP's vision is to become a centre of excellence
in disease prevention and control with the focus on epidemiology
training, surveillance, risk communication, research, coordination
and preparedness, and contingency planning.
About CECID (www.cecid.hku.hk)
Established in January 2002, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development
(CECID) at the University of Hong Kong conducts e-commerce research
and development with the vision of helping organizations increase their
competitiveness in the global economy. CECID develops e-commerce enabling
technologies, participates in important international e-commerce initiatives,
supports e-commerce standardization for Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific
Region, and transfers e-commerce technology and skills to the community.
With projects primarily funded by the Hong Kong Government's Innovation
and Technology Commission, CECID is an active member of OASIS and the
ebXML Asia Committee. The Center also collaborates with a number of
lead technology users in the Asia-Pacific Region on turning R&D
results into real-life business applications. CECID's contributions
to the community include its code donation of Hermes and ebMail to
freebXML (www.freebxml.org) and
the production of an in-depth design and management guide on XML Schemas
for the Hong Kong Government. CECID is currently developing a plug-and-play
Internet appliance for secure and reliable transmission of electronic
documents based on ebXML / Web Services.
PR Contacts for Press and Analysts
Dorris Tai (cwtai@cecid.hku.hk)
Business Manager
Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID)
Dept. of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2859 2818
Fax: +852 2547 4611
URL: www.cecid.hku.hk
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