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Previous reports have demonstrated the media’s influence on ED visits in situations such as dramatized acetaminophen overdose, media report of celebrity suicides, television public announcements for early stroke care and cardiac visits following President Clinton’s heart surgery. No previous study has demonstrated the influence of media-publicized trauma on ED visits. On 16 March 2009, the actress Natasha Richardson suffered a traumatic brain injury leading to her death on 18 March; these events were widely publicized by national news sources. The health departments of New York City, Boston, Duval County and Seattle monitor ED visits daily, and capture 95, 100, 100 and 95% of all ED visits, respectively. The data collected include basic demographic information, chief complaint and in some cases ICD-9 diagnosis codes.

Objective

This study describes an increase in head trauma-related visits to emergency departments (ED) in New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Duval County, Florida; and Seattle, Washington following the widespread media coverage of actress Natasha Richardson’s head injury and subsequent fatal epidural hematoma.

Referenced File
Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Previous reports have demonstrated the media’s influence on emergency departments (ED) visits in situations such as dramatized acetaminophen overdose, media report of celebrity suicides, television public announcements for early stroke care and cardiac visits following President Clinton’s heart surgery. No previous study has demonstrated the influence of media-publicized trauma on ED visits. On 16 March 2009, the actress Natasha Richardson suffered a traumatic brain injury leading to her death on 18 March; these events were widely publicized by national news sources. The health departments of New York City, Boston, Duval County and Seattle monitor ED visits daily, and capture 95, 100, 100 and 95% of all ED visits, respectively. The data collected include basic demographic information, chief complaint and in some cases ICD-9 diagnosis codes.

 

Objective

This study describes an increase in head trauma-related visits to ED in New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Duval County, Florida; and Seattle, Washington following the widespread media coverage of actress Natasha Richardson’s head injury and subsequent fatal epidural hematoma.

Referenced File
Submitted by hparton on

The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene monitors visits daily from 49 of 54 NYC emergency departments (EDs), capturing 95% of all ED visits. ED visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) have reflected influenza activity in NYC, better than the more broadly defined fever/flu and respiratory syndromes, but the correlation with H1N1 is unknown. 

Laboratory-confirmed influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) were made reportable in NYC in February 2008. DOHMH receives electronic reports of positive tests. 

As part of 2009–10 influenza surveillance, five hospitals were selected for ‘sentinel’ surveillance of hospitalized influenza cases, to test all patients with a respiratory condition for influenza. Sentinel hospitals ensured that patient medical record numbers were in the daily ED syndromic file and in the electronic laboratory reports.

 

Objective

To determine the correlation of the ILI syndrome with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 and RSV during the October 2009 to March 2010 H1N1 season in NYC.

Referenced File
Submitted by hparton on

In 2012, an outbreak of Mycobacterium chelonae infections in tattoo recipients in Rochester, NY was found to be associated with premixed tattoo ink contaminated before distribution.1 In May 2012, a case of M. chelonae was reported in a New York City (NYC) resident who received a tattoo with ink alleged to have been diluted with tap water. When a second case of M. chelonae in a tattoo recipient was reported in March 2013, an investigation was initiated. M. chelonae is not reportable in NYC other than in clusters reported by providers or laboratories. To determine if there were additional tattoo-associated M. chelonae infections, we searched for cases using NYC ED syndromic surveillance.

Objective

To investigate tattoo-associated skin infections due to Mycobacterium chelonae using Emergency Department (ED) syndromic surveillance.

Submitted by elamb on

The CC text field is a rich source of information, but its current use for syndromic surveillance is limited to a fixed set of syndromes that are routine, suspected, expected, or discovered by chance. In addition to syndromes that are routinely monitored by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (e.g., diarrhea, respiratory), additional syndromes are occasionally monitored when requested by outside sources or when expected to increase during emergencies. During Hurricane Sandy, we discovered by manual inspection of data for a few EDs an increase in certain words in the CC field (e.g., 'METHADONE', 'DIALYSIS', and 'OXYGEN') that led to the creation of a 'needs medication' syndrome. Current syndromic surveillance systems cannot detect unanticipated events that are not defined a priori by keywords. We describe a simple data-driven method that routinely scans the CC field for increases in word frequency that might trigger further investigation and/or temporary monitoring.

Objective

To detect sudden increases in word frequency in the Emergency Department (ED) syndromic chief complaint (CC) text field.

Submitted by knowledge_repo… on

On June 22, 2007 increases in over-the-counter (OTC) electrolyte and child anti-fever medication sales were detected through routine OTC surveillance. Increases in emergency department (ED) data for gastrointestinal (GI) illness among <5 year olds were observed on June 23 and 24. Further analyses indicated clustering within one borough of NYC, with three EDs having most of the visits. Because NYC has had limited success in detecting spatial outbreaks using syndromic surveillance in the past, an investigation was not immediately initiated.

DOHMH was notified of a multi-state outbreak of S. wandsworth suspected to be associated with the snack food Veggie Booty® on June 26. Cases were predominantly young children and included 8 confirmed cases among NYC residents with onset dates from March 4 – May 19.

 

Objective

To determine whether increases in GI illness detected through OTC drug sales and ED syndromic surveillance were linked to a multi-state outbreak of S. wandsworth associated with the consumption of Veggie Booty® snack food.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Over the last decade, the application of syndromic surveillance systems has expanded beyond early event detection to include longterm disease trend monitoring. However, statistical methods employed for analyzing syndromic data tend to focus on early event detection. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) may be a useful statistical framework for examining long-term disease trends because, unlike other models, GLMMs account for clustering common in syndromic data, and GLMMs can assess disease rates at multiple spatial and temporal levels (1). We show the benefits of the GLMM by using a GLMM to estimate asthma syndrome rates in New York City from 2007 to 2012, and to compare high and low asthma rates in Harlem and the Upper East Side (UES) of Manhattan.

Objective:

Show the benefits of using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to examine long-term trends in asthma syndrome data.

 

Submitted by Magou on

HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) involves taking antiretroviral medication after potential exposure to HIV to reduce the probability of becoming infected. New York State recommends PEP following certain occupational (e.g., needle sticks by healthcare workers) and non-occupational (e.g., sexual and needle-sharing activities) exposures. Little information exists on the uptake of PEP for HIV in the United States, particularly with regard to nonoccupational exposures. ED data have been used previously to identify occupational PEP visits but have not been used extensively to describe trends in PEP visits overall. We aimed to identify HIV-related PEP visits in NYC EDs to track uptake and inform outreach efforts.

Objective

To describe trends in HIV post-exposure prophylaxis uptake in New York City (NYC) emergency departments (EDs).

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Syndromic surveillance has demonstrated utility for situational awareness for non-infectious conditions, including tracking and monitoring gun-related violence and homicides. While New York State reports an overall decrease in gun-related crimes, in NYC identifying smaller scale aberrations of gunshot-related violence can prompt more efficient response by city groups. We examined the temporal and borough-level characteristics of gunshot-related emergency department (ED) visits in NYC.

Objective

To describe epidemiological characteristics of gunshot-related injuries in New York City (NYC) using syndromic surveillance data

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
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