ABSTRACT
The Northern Territory Notifiable Diseases System (NTNDS) is the primary surveillance database collecting information related to notifiable diseases in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. This web-based system has been in use since 2004 and is managed by the NT Centre for Disease Control (CDC). We aimed to evaluate the performance of the NTNDS in meeting ongoing disease surveillance requirements in 2024, against surveillance system attributes listed by the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. We used quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate 9 surveillance system attributes; these were simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, sensitivity, predictive value positive, timeliness, stability and cost, as well as overall usefulness.
The evaluation revealed that the NTNDS is simple to use, stable and contains high quality data. However, the system has major limitations in terms of flexibility, timeliness, cost to implement modifications, and lacks many capabilities required in a contemporary disease surveillance system. The NTNDS is no longer suitable or fit-for-purpose when additional surveillance demands are placed on the system. We developed a list of recommendations to improve the operational efficiency of the NTNDS. However, while it is feasible to continue using and improving the NTNDS, the preference would be to replace the NTNDS with a new interoperable and contemporary surveillance system.