Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Health Department and Cerner Corp. announced Monday they have developed an “early warning” computer system to alert health authorities to possible disease outbreaks or bioterrorist attacks in the metropolitan area.

The HealthSentry system will provide the Health Department with daily updates on the hundreds of lab tests that area hospitals order for patients who may have infectious diseases.

The system is designed to immediately page health officials whenever patients are tested for deadly diseases, such as anthrax or plague, that are considered potential bioterrorist weapons.

Eventually, HealthSentry will be able to automatically alert the Health Department when hospitals order unusually large numbers of tests for other infectious illnesses, such as sexually transmitted or foodborne diseases.

The system will make it possible to identify disease outbreaks faster and speed the treatment of people who may have been infected, said Health Department Director Rex Archer.

Local health officials said the system puts Kansas City on the leading edge of disease tracking.

“When you add this surveillance system with its public health focus, Kansas City may be the most well-protected community in the country,” said Richard W. Brown, president and chief executive officer of Health Midwest.

Neal Patterson, Cerner’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the system represented the company’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the anthrax mailings to government and media offices that followed soon after.

“Our health systems in this country on 9/12 became part of the national defense system,” Patterson said.