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CASE NOTES


MAX as a Case Management System in an Emergency Animal Disease (EAD) Response

Alliza Bartley, NSW DPI

Introduction

The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is the appointed combat agency for biosecurity (animal and plant) emergencies under the NSW State Emergency Management Plan (EMPLAN). DPI, with support from Local Land Services (LLS), responds to biosecurity emergencies in accordance with the Biosecurity Act 2015, the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989, the Work Health, Safety Act 2011, and other state and national legislation.

MAX has been selected to be the National Case Management System (CMS) used to capture intelligence for all Emergency Responses.

The Emergency Animal Disease MAX Project

The MAX Emergency Animal Disease Project was set up to capture required data during an Emergency Animal Disease response and develop a minimum viable product (MVP) EAD site within MAX. The project work has also been applied to assist in the set-up of case management sites for non-EAD responses, including Japanese Encephalitis and White Spot Disease Virus.

Also included in the project scope was the identification and development of training materials, user acceptance testing and the development of reports for use in response management.

Features of EAD MAX

Through ongoing collaborative stakeholder discussions and a user acceptance testing workshop (including key personnel from the Animal Biosecurity Unit, Compliance and Integrity System, LLS and DPI Emergency Management, and some additional DPI staff), the EAD MAX Project team have identified core business processes and data capture requirements for an EAD Response within NSW.

Enhancements were made to existing MAX Forms (field-friendly data entry forms within MAX) with a focus on NSW specific requirements, workflow and business processes. Links were established to existing NSW databases including LLS Farms (to extract PIC and holding information) and biomap.

The NSW EAD MAX site includes:

The case overview screen in MAX has additional points of data entry and increased functionality. This includes sections to
i. update the case classification,
ii. add information relating to, and upload legal instrument,
iii. add and view any case related documents and
iv. add case notes.

Additionally, the case overview screen has additional tracing functionality via the NLIS tool tab, which links to the NLIS database.

Advantages of MAX as a Field Veterinarian within an EAD Response

A key advantage of MAX as a case management system is its increased functionality in the field. All MAX Forms can be assigned by a team leader to any field team member. Once assigned, historical data and case info data, or case information will be preloaded and appear on the assigned team members' MAX Form application on their handheld device. Field personnel can then view any relevant existing information and enter any new data collected from their field visit.

Future and Ongoing Work

A detailed understanding of the ongoing resource requirements associated with the maintenance and improvement of the Emergency Animal Disease (EAD) template within MAX as well as customisation for future disease-specific templates will be a product for future work. Additional work is also required to explore the NSW data requirements within MAX to report on vaccine use, and information relating to border checkpoints, saleyard monitoring and holding sites at the time of a livestock standstill.

The EAD MAX Project team are working to explore ways to integrate MAX with other specialised software and processes including:

 


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