Edastuskiri

To:         National focal points for HIV/AIDS, STI and Hepatitis B, C

                Operational contact points for Epidemiology (STIs and Hepatitis)

Operational contact points for Tessy and EpiPulse Cases (STIs and Hepatitis)

Cc:        National focal points for surveillance

National Coordinators

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to inform you that data submission to Tessy will change to a new system, called EpiPulse Cases. This change will be done gradually for all diseases. This spring it will be done for hepatitis B and C as well as STIs (GONO, SYPH, CHLAM, LGV, CONSYPH, but not GONOAMR which will be done in 2026).

HIV and TB will be done in 2026. Vaccine Preventable Diseases have already switched over to EpiPulse Cases so as needed you can also consider discussing with the team that submit these data as they will have experience of EpiPulse Cases.

Key features:

• EpiPulse cases has been designed to handle large data volumes and will be cloud-based, which will make for faster processing and allow to scale up capacity as required. EpiPulse Cases and the underlying data warehouse are set up in a way that will markedly facilitate its technical maintenance and hence render the platform more robust also from a user perspective

• EpiPulse Cases will offer an automated technical and epidemiological validation of your data directly upon upload. The epidemiological validation will be based on a combination of the previous TESSy-inbuilt validation rules, completeness checks for key variables and a comparison with historical data of yours to detect any unexplained aberrations. Instead of TESSy error and warning messages, you will receive a graphic online validation report, the content and format of which will be targeted at epidemiologists and data managers and will point you to possible data quality issues.

• Some variables will change names slightly and some coded value lists will also change. This is to achieve harmonisation across diseases. You will get more information when the metadata is circulated at the end of March.

• The overall logic and steps of reporting national surveillance data to ECDC remain largely the same. However, the user interface will be different from TESSy, and users will need to learn how to navigate a familiar workflow that now comes with a new look and feel.

Tentative timeline:                    

• March 24^th:

The final new metadata set will be circulated and National focal points for a 10-day review period.

• April    

Webinars / trainings to help you understand the new EpiPulse Cases system.

In connection to the trainings ECDC will also open an EpiPulse Cases training environment where you can practice uploading data.

• May 26^th

The switch to EpiPulse Cases is scheduled for May 25^th. The week prior to this date, it will not be possible to submit data to ECDC as the system is changed and the old data from Tessy migrated and recorded to EpiPulse Cases. Up to this time you can still submit data using the old Tessy system and the old metadata. The submitted data will be migrated to the new system by ECDC.

After May 25^th you can again submit data, but only through the new EpiPulse Cases system.

ECDC will also provide a conversion tool that will help you recode data to the new metadata.

We will be in touch and send you more information closer to the time, including when training dates are set.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.

Kind regards,

Lina Nerlander

Principal Expert- STIs,

on behalf of the ECDC STI and hepatitis teams