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Are the French SAMU data relevant for health surveillance?

Description

The syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system developed by Sante© publique France, the French National Public Health Agency collects daily data from 4 data sources: emergency departments (OSCOUR® ED network), emergency general practioners (SOS Medecins network), crude mortality (civil status data) and electronic death certification including causes of death. The system aims to timely identify, follow and assess the health impact of unusual or seasonal events on emergency medical activity and mortality. However some information could be missed by the system especially for non-severe (absence of ED consultation) or, in contrast, highly severe purposes (direct access to intensive care units). The French pre-hospital emergency medical service (SAMU) represents a potential valuable data source to complete the SurSaUD® surveillance system, thanks to reactive pre-hospital data collection and a large geographical coverage on the whole territory. Data are still not completely standardized and computerized but a governmental project to develop a national common IT system involving all French SAMU is in progress and will be experimented in the following years.

Objective:

To evaluate whether SAMU data could be relevant for health surveillance and proposed to be integrated into the French national syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system.

Submitted by elamb on