Austin Erin

Norovirus infection results in considerable morbidity in the United States where an estimated 21 million illnesses, 70,000 hospitalizations, and 800 deaths are caused by NV annually. Additionally, NV is responsible for approximately 50% of foodborne outbreaks. Between January 2008 and June 2012, 875 NV outbreaks were reported to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). To assist in detecting possible disease outbreaks such as NV, VDH utilizes the web-based Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) to monitor and detect public health events across Virginia. ESSENCE performs automated parsing of chief complaint text into 10 syndrome categories, including a non-specific GI syndrome that serves as a proxy for GI illnesses like NV.

Objective

To assess the relationship between emergency department and urgent care center chief complaint data for gastrointestinal illness and reported norovirus (NV) outbreaks to develop an early warning tool for NV outbreak activity. The tool will provide an indicator of increasing NV outbreak activity in the community allowing for earlier public health action to mitigate NV outbreaks.

Utilization and overcrowding of EDs has been a prominent component of the health care reform debate in the United States for the last several years. In Virginia, the ED utilization rate has increased 27.5% between 2000 and 2012 from 34.5 visits to 44.0 visits per 100 persons. Individuals with high frequency utilization of EDs account for a disproportionate number of visits, which can place burden on already strained health care resources. This study aims to use existing syndromic surveillance data received electronically by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to describe demographic and utilization characteristics among chronic high frequency ED users in order to better understand the health complaints affecting this population.

Objective

Leverage existing syndromic surveillance data to characterize the population of chronic high frequency emergency department (ED) users and to understand the health complaints for which this population utilizes emergent health care services.

Drug overdoses and related deaths have been escalating nationally since 1970. In Virginia, the rate of drug overdose deaths increased 36% from 5.0 to 6.8 deaths per 100,000 population between 1999 and 2010. While initiated for bioterrorism event detection, syndromic surveillance has shown utility when extended to other health issues. ED visits may complement information from Overdose Deaths investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in describing drug overdose trends. Due to its real-time nature, syndromic surveillance data could act as an early indicator for emerging drug problems in the community, serving as an alert to public health.

Objective

Determine if syndromic surveillance data can be used to provide a real-time picture of the drug using population by analyzing trends of emergency department (ED) visits for unintentional drug overdose (Overdose Visits) in conjunction with unintentional deaths that prescription or illicit opiates contributed to or caused (Overdose Deaths).

BioSense 2.0 has become a platform for technical receipt and analysis of syndromic surveillance data for many jurisdictions nationwide, as well as a collaborative effort that has engaged a larger community of syndromic surveillance practitioners, Governance Group, and federal agencies and organizations. The potential longterm benefits of BioSense 2.0 for resource and data sharing have at times been overshadowed by the short-term limitations of the system and disconnected efforts among the CoP. In May 2014, representatives from 41 jurisdictions attended a 2-day, in-person meeting where four workgroups were formed to address on-boarding, data quality, data sharing and syndrome definition in an effort to advance changes that resonate with actual surveillance practice.

Objective

This roundtable will provide a forum for the syndromic surveillance Community of Practice (CoP) to learn about activities of the BioSense 2.0 User Group (BUG) workgroups that address priority issues in syndromic surveillance. It will be an opportunity to discuss key challenges faced by public health jurisdictions in the era of Meaningful Use and identify further needs and best practices in the areas of data quality, data sharing, onboarding, and developing syndrome definitions.

 

Mass gatherings can result in morbidity and mortality from communicable and non-communicable diseases, injury, and bioterrorism. Therefore, it is important to identify event-related visits as opposed to community-related visits when conducting public health surveillance. Previous mass gatherings in Virginia have demonstrated the importance of implementing enhanced surveillance to facilitate early detection of public health issues to allow for timelyresponse. Between June 2015 and September 2015, VDH coordinated with two healthcare entities representing six acute care hospitals to conduct enhanced surveillance for the 2015 World Police and Fire Games and 2015 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) RoadWorld Championships. VDH established initial communicationwith each healthcare entity between 1 week to 2 months before theevent start date to discuss functional requirements with technical,informatics, and clinical staff.

Objective

To describe the planning strategies and lessons learned by theVirginia Department of Health (VDH) when conducting enhancedsurveillance during mass gathering events and coordinating withhealthcare entities to distinguish event-related emergency department(ED) visits from community-related ED visits