The integration of tissue diagnostic codes from veterinary diagnostic labs in Ohio and Iowa is expected to expand the representativeness of swine disease diagnostics and improve the detection of developing disease challenges.The Swine Health Information Center's December eNewsletter highlights the first multi-laboratory integration of confirmed tissue diagnosis codes, bringing together diagnostic data from the Ohio Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says the change will improve the ability to monitor trends.
Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
The bonus page highlights the focus to incorporate similar diagnostic data that incorporates diagnostic codes into a comparable database.So, what does this mean? The Ohio State Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory is working with Iowa State to standardize their diagnostic codes.That way, when Ohio enters data for Iowa State, those two pieces of information are comparable and can be tracked consistently for disease diagnostic coding.
This process can expand the representativeness of the disease diagnostic database and also enables early detection of emerging disease challenges.This can happen because of better tracking of diagnostic codes for the top 50 frequent disease diagnosis.This is important because it can help signal a potential shift in diagnostics of different diseases.Does that indicate increased diagnosis, has the presentation changed or could that signal a new or emerging disease. Having this information is important to be able to continue to monitor trends that are occurring in swine health data.
The Swine Health Information Center's domestic and global swine disease monitoring reports can be accessed at swinehealth.org.
Source : Farmscape.ca