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Bioterrorism surveillance is an integral component of DCHD’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. This study was a collaborative effort between Duval County Health Department, University of South Florida’s Center for Biological Defense (CBD), and DataSphere, LLC. DCHD’s role in the project was to identify surveillance sites, involve community partners, share data/info with surrounding agencies, counties and the state department of health, and secure funding for the system. CBD’s role in the project was facilitating the operational and technical implementation of the system and serving as a liaison between hospitals, health departments, and DataSphere, LLC. DataSphere, LLC owns and operates BioDefend and was responsible for the technical setup and maintenance of the system. The study addressed the feasibility of automated data collection by healthcare facilities and issues related to implementation of a syndromic surveillance system.

 

Objective

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the BioDefend syndromic surveillance system for its use.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

In 2004, the BioDefend (BD) syndromic surveillance (SS) system was implemented in Duval County hospitals (Jacksonville, FL). Daily emergency department chief complaints are manually classified and entered into the BD system by triage personnel. As part of a statewide implementation, the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) began collecting data in the Jacksonville area during the winter of 2007-08. ESSENCE uses an automated data collection, chief complaint parsing and analysis process for data management and analysis. The use of two systems during the same period of time in one area provided a unique opportunity to retrospectively analyze characteristics of the BD and ESSENCE systems.

 

Objective

To compare detection of a community outbreak of influenza-like illness using two SS systems, one using a clinician’s classification of reason for visit and the other using an automated chief complaint parsing algorithm.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Many syndromic surveillance systems have been developed and are operational, yet lack concise guidelines for investigating and conducting followups on daily alarms. Daily emergency department visits from six reporting hospitals in the Duval County area are assessed and classified into a BioDefend (BD) system entry by triage personnel. Alarms are categorized into alerts, 3 SD above a 30 day rolling mean, or warnings, 2-3 SD above the mean. Signals are monitored and in response, public health investigations and recommended interventions are initiated.

 

Objective

To evaluate the protocol that the Duval County Health Department (DCHD) epidemiology staff uses to respond to BD syndromic surveillance system alarms. The response protocol utilizes all signals detected by BD and its secondary resources, within the DCHD jurisdiction.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

This panel member consultation is an International Society of Disease Surveillance (ISDS) sponsored project. It involved expert personnel in their respective area to address specific, priority questions confronting researchers, developers, and public health practioners in the field of syndromic surveillance (SS). The objective of this consultation will be to develop expert, consensus-based recommendations that address specific, unsettled problems or unanswered questions that hinder advances in utilization of syndromic surveillance data in combination with other data sources. Recommendations arising from the consultation should facilitate efforts by researchers, developers, or practitioners to be able to stride ahead and make progress.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

The purpose of this study is to depict a local county health departmentís analysis and dissemination algorithm of surveillance system (SS) aberration (alarm) to designated stakeholders within the community.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

In the event of a large-scale public health crisis, successfully detecting and assessing health threats and monitoring population health status over a sustained period of time is likely to require integration of information from multiple sources. In addition, this information must be shared at varying levels of detail both among different agencies or organizations within an affected locality and among response participants at local, state, and federal levels of government. In early 2007, the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) proposed a project to support member initiated consultations on priority unresolved questions in the field of syndromic surveillance (SS) research, development, or practice. The Duval County Health Department sought and obtained ISDS support to address the use of SS data in combination with other human health and veterinary surveillance data, environmental sampling data, and plume modeling results in the event of an airborne bioterrorist (BT) attack. To date, the development of SS in Florida has mainly focused on systems that monitor information from emergency department (ED) visits. In addition, because SS development was decentralized and managed primarily by county health departments, various systems were used in Florida, including ESSENCE, STARS, EARS and BioDefend.

Objective

The objective of this consultation was to develop expert, consensus-based recommendations for use of SS in combination with other human health, animal health, and environmental data sources to improve situational awareness in the event of a large-scale public health emergency. The consultation, convened by the Duval County, Florida, Health Department, involved other local and state public health offi cials from Florida who addressed this question in the context of a hypothetical BT attack scenario in Duval County. Insights arising from the consultation will be used to strengthen public health surveillance capacities as part of both local and state emergency preparedness efforts in Florida. The approach used by the consultation may be useful to other health departments seeking to enhance their emergency situational awareness capacity.

Referenced File
Submitted by uysz on
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