Conclusion: MEDSS Training

MEDSS is an all purpose electronic data tracking system that allows events to be shared, linked, and assigned for easier management. The system is person centric, so all information is organized around the person not the event or disease. The same person can be entered into the system with various diseases over time; each instance resulting in a different event in the MEDSS system. This is important to remember to avoid person duplications that can slow the system. The MEDSS dashboard is divided into four sections. The top two sections help navigation while the bottom two sections are for inputting information on the person and event.

Some important tips to remember:

• When navigating in MEDSS, do NOT use the browser’s back button, use the Dashboard link on the screen.
• Save your work often- the system times out after twenty minutes of inactivity.
• Before adding a new event, always search twice by person and event.
• Wildcard characters (*) help searching for a person easier when a user is unsure which characters are used.
• Question package is a set of questions with a common theme. Inside a QP is where some data on the event can be added, modified, or deleted.
• Wizards show the standard data entry forms and may be available for some diseases.
• Demographic information can be edited in two different areas depending on the question: under Persons tab or in the Demographic QP.
• All cases’ activity can be tracked under the Event Audit Trail Tab for data security and privacy protection.
• Recent cases button on the toolbar help organize and locate the past 20 cases the user was working on.
• Workflows, which are your electronic To-Do lists, and are updated by rules built into the MEDSS system.
• Tasks are to do lists that are created manually either by yourself or another staff member and assigned. You can find tasks using the task icon in the toolbar or by going to workflows.
• Print templates allow for some data from the QPs to automatically be updated on the document before printing.
• Reports are used to extract data from the MEDSS system and can either be viewed on the screen or extracted in Excel.
• Sharing allows cases to be open to different jurisdictions, but not all users have access to open the event for someone.
• MEDSS allows event, person and exposure location links to help with investigations.