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Kansas City, MO – Kansas City based Cerner is collaborating with the U.S. Government on tracking swine flu. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the announcement in Kansas City earlier this morning.
Speaking to some 6,000 employees at a Cerner Health Conference, Sebelius said the ability to better track disease outbreaks through the new H1N1 flu initiative will provide more information about the disease in real-time.
She said it will allow the government to better manage its deployment of resources, like health personnel and medicine. And, she said the project will have a lasting impact beyond the flu season.
"What it will do in the long run is also give us a whole new model for the Centers for Disease Control, how we monitor the outbreak of disease, how we track systems, how we learn from that," Sebelius said.
Through the initiative, Cerner will share its own surveillance system, which covers about a third of all U.S. health care providers.
Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
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