Susan Downer

With direct experience as a laboratory technician, Susan’s expertise bridges the space between laboratory science and public health informatics. She holds a Masters Degree in Food Science and Technology and is the recipient of an APHL Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Training Fellowship. Susan is familiar with laboratory data related to molecular biology, virology, food science, infectious disease, newborn screening, and STDs.

As a terminologist, she is experienced with public health standards and vocabularies, including LOINC, SNOMED CT, HL7 and National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) Case Notification Message Mapping Guides (MMGs). She is HL7 certified and has provided terminology support to public health agencies and laboratories, mapping local to standard codes. Susan has worked on multiple national laboratory messaging initiatives including Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR), LIMSi, NNDSS Modernization Initiative (NMI) and the Public Health Laboratory Interoperability Project (PHLIP). Her clients have included APHL, CDC, FDA, and VDCLS.