Informatics and infectious diseases: What is the connection and efficacy of information technology tools for therapy and health care epidemiology?

Increases in use of electronic medical records and availability of information technology tools have created opportunities for automation of surveillance. Automation of data collection tasks may improve the timeliness and completeness of surveillance, may allow infection control professionals to have more time for interventions, and should facilitate new areas of surveillance. Many factors must be considered in the development of an infection control data warehouse, including the needs of users, completeness and validity of data, and availability of reports. We present examples of uses of a developed data warehouse in improving efficacy of infection control.