This community innovation has been accepted at the 2026 DHIS2 Annual Conference as a digital poster.
Real-Time Hospital Disease Alerts Using DHIS2
Natural disasters increase the risk of communicable disease transmission and place significant strain on routine surveillance systems, often resulting in delayed detection and response. Following a major disaster in December, Sri Lanka required a rapid, hospital-based surveillance mechanism to capture early signals of priority diseases and related deaths. Routine reporting mechanisms were insufficient to meet the need for timely, daily situational awareness during the emergency phase. To address this gap, a new DHIS2 dataset was designed and implemented to support real-time hospital disease alerts. The dataset enabled daily reporting from hospitals across the country, with Infection Control Nursing Officers responsible for submitting notifications. Priority was given to selected communicable diseases and deaths including Chickenpox, Dysentery, Enteric fever, Food poisoning, Leptospirosis, Measles, and Viral Hepatitis. The system was configured to trigger real-time alerts within the national disease surveillance workflow, allowing immediate review and action by public health teams at district and national levels. The implementation facilitated rapid data aggregation, validation, and visualization through DHIS2 dashboards, supporting continuous monitoring during the post-disaster period. Automated alerts improved the timeliness of signal detection, while daily hospital reporting reduced dependence on delayed routine surveillance channels. The system enabled early identification of abnormal trends and potential outbreaks, prompting timely field investigations and public health interventions. This experience demonstrates how DHIS2 datasets can be rapidly adapted to strengthen event-based, hospital-centered surveillance during emergencies without introducing parallel systems. Integrating daily hospital notifications into existing surveillance workflows enhanced coordination, improved situational awareness, and strengthened the overall disease surveillance process. The approach is scalable and transferable to other disaster-prone settings seeking to reinforce public health response using DHIS2.
Primary Author: SMHS Chandrasena
Keywords:
DHIS2, real time, hospital based, surveillance, disaster, emergency, public health, alerts, notifications, daily reporting, ICNO, hospitals, national system, early detection, outbreak, event based, datasets, dashboards, analytics, monitoring, response, coordination, preparedness, recovery, situational awareness, data quality, timeliness, validation, automation, workflows, integration, interoperability, health information systems, epidemiology, surveillance strengthening, priority diseases, mortality, case notification, rapid assessment, decision support, visualization, reporting, governance, scalability, sustainability, resilience, crisis management, field investigation, signal detection, public health teams, hospitals network, nationwide, emergency response, digital health, health informatics, surveillance innovation, system performance, data use, risk assessment, early warning, monitoring evaluation, coordination mechanisms, capacity building, operationalization,