Data submitted to ILINet from ambulatory practices are a primary feature of influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance in the United States. Practices count relevant patient records and submit this data manually to ILINet. The ongoing data collection is useful for surveillance, and a significant amount of historical data has accumulated which is useful for research purposes and comparisons of the present season to the past. However, the tabulation of this data is costly, and retention of sentinel practices can be challenging as there is no mandate to submit data. Increasingly, the EpiCenter syndromic surveillance system is receiving data from ambulatory practices. Syndromic surveillance data is sent automatically in near-realtime. Meaningful Use requirements incentivize practices to participate in ongoing data transmission. Syndromic surveillance data from ambulatory practices is thus a possible substitute for the current, more labor-intensive surveillance of ambulatory practices.
Objective
To investigate the viability of using prediagnostic syndromic surveillance data from ambulatory practices for influenza-like illness surveillance