@Article{info:doi/10.2196/publichealth.4991, author="Yelk Woodruff, Rachel S and Pratt, Robert H and Armstrong, Lori R", title="The US National Tuberculosis Surveillance System: A Descriptive Assessment of the Completeness and Consistency of Data Reported from 2008 to 2012", journal="JMIR Public Health Surveill", year="2015", month="Oct", day="15", volume="1", number="2", pages="e15", keywords="public health surveillance; disease notification; information systems; data cleaning; quality assurance", abstract="Background: In 2009, the Tuberculosis (TB) Information Management System transitioned into the National TB Surveillance System to allow use of 4 different types of electronic reporting schemes: state-built, commercial, and 2 schemes developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simultaneously, the reporting form was revised to include additional data fields. Objective: Describe data completeness for the years 2008-2012 and determine the impact of surveillance changes. Methods: Data were categorized into subgroups and assessed for completeness (eg, the percentage of patients dead at diagnosis who had a date of death reported) and consistency (eg, the percentage of patients alive at diagnosis who erroneously had a date of death reported). Reporting jurisdictions were grouped to examine differences by reporting scheme. Results: Each year less than 1{\%} of reported cases had missing information for country of origin, race, or ethnicity. Patients reported as dead at diagnosis had death date (a new data field) missing for 3.6{\%} in 2009 and 4.4{\%} in 2012. From 2010 to 2012, 313 cases (1{\%}) reported as alive at diagnosis had a death date and all of these were reported through state-built or commercial systems. The completeness of reporting for guardian country of birth for pediatric patients (a new data field) ranged from 84{\%} in 2009 to 88.2{\%} in 2011. Conclusions: Despite major changes, completeness has remained high for most data elements in TB surveillance. However, some data fields introduced in 2009 remain incomplete; continued training is needed to improve national TB surveillance data. ", issn="2369-2960", doi="10.2196/publichealth.4991", url="http://publichealth.jmir.org/2015/2/e15/", url="https://doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.4991", url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27227133" }