Community-driven standards-based electronic laboratory data-sharing networks

Public health laboratories (PHLs) are critical components of the nation's healthcare system, serving as stewards of valuable specimens, delivering important diagnostic results to support clinical and public health programs, supporting public health policy, and conducting research. This article discusses the need for and challenges of creating standards-based data-sharing networks across the PHL community, which led to the development of the PHL Interoperability Project (PHLIP). Launched by the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2006, PHLIP has leveraged a unique community-based collaborative process, catalyzing national capabilities to more effectively share electronic laboratory-generated diagnostic information and bolster the nation's health security. PHLIP is emerging as a model of accelerated innovation for the fields of laboratory science, technology, and public health.