THISIS Glossary
Accession number – The unique identifier assigned to a medical specimen.
ACRF – Adult Case Reporting Form
Additional questions – Another term for child question. A question that occurs because of a certain choice in a reflexive, or main, question.
AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Case picker questions – A question in which the answer is selected from information already entered in the system. To answer a case picker questions, the user will have to click on a link provided that navigates to the possible selection options.
CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Child question – A child question results when a particular attribute is chosen in a reflexive question. For example, if female is chosen instead of male, a child question might be “Has the patient ever been pregnant?” This question would not be asked if male is selected.
CO – Central Office (DSHS main office in Austin)
Concern – an important issue that could affect an event. There are two types of concerns in THISIS: System-generated concerns and user-generated concerns. See chapter 2.13 in the core manual for more information on concerns.
- System-Generated Concerns: Concerns that are automatically generated by THISIS and used to highlight a data entry issue. For example, if someone mistakenly inputs a date of birth for the person that is after the date of onset of symptoms, THISIS can generate a concern - a notice that a data entry error may have occurred. Because data entry errors in THISIS are shown as concerns, it is important to check the Concerns tab regularly. Some concerns will prevent the user from saving the question package until the concern is addressed. “Prevent save” and other messages will display on the event dashboard alerting the user to corrections needed.
- User-Generated Concerns: Concerns that are added manually by the user to bring attention to an important issue and can be about any aspect of the case.
DIS – Disease Intervention Specialist
DSHS – Department of State Health Services
DTAR – Date, Time, Activity, Result – a method for documenting outcomes of fieldwork for disease intervention specialists
eHARS – Electronic HIV/AIDS Reporting Surveillance
ELR – Electronic Lab Reporting
Event – The occurrence of a disease and a person. A person can be associated with more than one event if he or she has multiple diseases. For example, if a man has TB, HIV and syphilis, he will have three events. If he were re-infected with syphilis two years later, he will have four events.
Event Dashboard – The main page for an event and the starting point from which most actions take place. When a user clicks on an Event ID, the event dashboard will open.
Event ID – The unique event number automatically assigned to each event by THISIS.
Group – Groups determine which events are visible to the user. Groups are typically based on jurisdiction (County, District, Region, and State) and a disease classification. Users can search and see events in groups other than their own but will only receive notifications about events in their own group. Users can belong to more than one group.
History – A way to expand a search to include older values, such as older addresses or names. Watch the video “Conquering THISIS” for more information on the history function.
HIV – Human Immuno-deficiency Virus
HL-7 – Health Level Seven International – A set of international standards or mapping developed for the transfer of health data between software systems that would otherwise be unable to “communicate” because they are set up/developed differently.
ICCR – Interstate Communication Control Record
Main Dashboard – Another name for Splash Screen. See Splash Screen definition.
NCI – No Contact Initiated – when a partner services interview does not generate partners with enough information to initiate a field record for public health follow-up
Performing Laboratory – The laboratory where the specimen was received and evaluated.
Permissions – The rights a person has to access different functions and records within the system.
Person – An individual for whom data is being entered in THISIS; a patient with one or more confirmed or suspected cases of the reported diseases in THISIS (TB, HIV, STD).
PHFU – Public Health Follow-Up
Picker-type Question – Picker-type questions have a magnifying class to search for possible responses. For example: facilities or providers may be entered is different ways but refer to the same entity.
QID – Question ID – the variable name for a question or field within the THISIS system
QP – Question Package (see definition below)
Question packages – A group of questions sharing a common theme. The group is related to various areas of interest for a given disease. All diseases will have a demographic question package. Diseases will also have question packages specific to the disease. For example, TB will have a question package about adverse reactions but does not have a question package for risk behaviors.
Question package table fields – The information displayed in a tab about a particular question package: name (of question package), person, status, last updated, and who performed the last update.
Recent Cases/Recent Events – A section on the Splash Screen/THISIS home page that shows events the user has recently worked on or created. Clicking on the ‘More’ link at the bottom of this box will bring you to the Recent Events screen, which contains a table with the twenty most recent events – events either created or viewed by the user.
Reflexive questions – Reflexive questions have additional questions that dynamically appear after data is entered for that question. These additional questions are called child questions.
Repeating question – A repeating question allows for multiple answers. Repeating questions are identified by the Add New link to the right of the question.
Report Source – The type of report, laboratory or medical record, the laboratory test result has reported.
Rights – The ability a person has to access different functions and records within the THISIS system.
Role – Roles define the user's permissions - the ability to use specific functions/features in THISIS. Example: a user with the STD First Line Supervisor role would have permission to approve field record dispositions. A TB nurse would have permission to enter and change data.
RVCT – Report of Verified Case of Tuberculosis – the national TB surveillance data reporting form
Sending Laboratory – The laboratory that reported the test result to the health department.
Soundex searches – a way to expand a search for items that sound like the search criteria used. Watch the video “Conquering THISIS” for more information on the soundex function.
Specimen site – The physical anatomic site on the patient’s body where the specimen was obtained (i.e., throat, rectum, vagina).
Specimen site modifier – The modifier associated with the specimen (i.e., right, left).
Specimen type – The type of specimen obtained from the patient’s body (i.e., saliva, blood, urine).
Splash Screen – The opening screen, or home page in THISIS. It provides the user with a visual summary of what is going on in the system and is the place from which users access the main functions available in THISIS. Because users have different permissions and roles, belong to different groups, and work on different cases, the Splash Screen will often look different for each user. THISIS Splash Screen, Main Dashboard, homepage, and opening screen all refer to the same screen, and therefore, are terms used interchangeably.
STD – Sexually Transmitted Disease
STD*MIS – Legacy system for tracking STD surveillance and PHFU
STD-27 – Form used by providers to report STDs to local health authorities
System-Generated Concern – A notation automatically generated by THISIS to highlight a potential data entry issue.
Tabs – The tabs occupy the bottom half of the event dashboard page and display more detailed information about the event. The user can click to change the information presented by selecting each different tab. The section below the tab bar displays additional details about each tab.
Task – Tasks within THISIS are a technique for users to delegate assignments or work to others. They are essentially a type of workflow that are manually assigned by THISIS users and can be given a due date. See chapter 5.2 in the core manual for more information.
THISIS – TB, HIV, STD Integrated System
Toolbar – The toolbar is located at the top of a user's screen in THISIS and contains icons (buttons) that perform the majority of the functions in the system. The buttons displayed on the toolbar may vary depending on a user's role.
User – Any individual using the THISIS system.
User-Generated Concern – A notation created by a user to bring attention to an issue.
VCA – Visual Case Analysis – document used to map out relationships of syphilis infections within a network to determine source/spread
Workflow – Workflows are the way that THISIS helps users manage their work by identifying events and tasks that need user attention. THISIS internally monitors new and updated events and tasks to determine what actions are required, which then appear as a workflow in a user’s account.
Workflow Queue – The screen in a user’s account where all workflows for events that have satisfied monitored conditions appear. Events appear in workflow queues automatically based on what has happened or what must happen with an event. Workflows that appear in a user’s queue allow the user to keep up with events and work that need to be addressed. Some workflows will appear in a user’s queue for monitoring purposes, whereas other workflows in the queue will require action to be taken by a user with the appropriate permissions so the workflow can be removed from the queue.