Development of an Integrated Surveillance System for Beijing

After the SARS outbreak in 2003, Beijing established Fever Clinics in major hospitals for the early detection of potential respiratory disease outbreaks. The data collection in Fever Clinics contains the basic patient information, body temperature, cough, and breath condition, as well as a primary diagnosis. Since the symptoms and diagnosis are mainly recorded in free text format, it is very difficult to use for data analysis. Because of the problems in data processing, the data collection has decreased.

Objective

This paper describes the methodology in the development of an Integrated Surveillance System for Beijing, China.