In 2003, the province of Ontario was facing one of the most serious threats to humanity, an unknown and sometimes fatal infectious agent, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The disease outbreak spread largely through health care settings such as hospitals and physician clinics. By the end of the crisis, 44 people had died and thousands had become ill and/or faced quarantine.

Shortly after the SARS outbreak, a new provincial government infection surveillance regulation was put it place, requiring hospitals to screen all patients and visitors entering the hospital, for fever and respiratory illness - febrile respiratory illness (FRI).

The new FRI surveillance regulation required a more proactive approach to infection surveillance, reporting and control by the hospital's frontline infectious control practitioners (ICPs) and the City of Hamilton's public health nurses (PHNs). As a result of the added workload placed upon infection control practitioners and the public health department's need for timely reporting, challenges developed between the two groups.

Interpix was brought in to conduct a field usability study to address these concerns and find a solution.