Process Reengineering: China's Public Health Emergency Information System

The SARS crisis has exposed the inability of China’s fragile public health system to respond to emergencies. China’s central government has initiated a national project to establish a public health emergency information system (PHEIS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the ongoing development of China’s PHEIS. By using a functional coupling framework, the paper analyzes the weakness of the old public health system, describes the design and functionalities of PHEIS, and discusses implications on future system development from a process reengineering perspective.