Real-time disease surveillance is critical for early detection of the covert release of a biological threat agent (BTA). Numerous software applications have been developed to detect emerging disease clusters resulting from either naturally occurring phenomena or from occult acts of bioterrorism. However, these do not focus adequately on the diagnosis of BTA infection in proportion to the potential risk to public health.
GUARDIAN is a real-time, scalable, extensible, automated, knowledge-based BTA detection and diagnosis system. GUARDIAN conducts real-time analysis of multiple pre-diagnostic parameters from records already being collected within an emergency department (ED). The goal of this system is to assist clinicians in detecting potential BTAs as quickly and effectively as possible in order to better respond to and mitigate the effects of a large-scale outbreak.
GUARDIAN improves the diagnostic process by moving away from simple trend anomaly detection and towards the development of a BTA-specific infectious disease expert system [1]. Through the capture and automated application of specific clinical expertise, GUARDIAN provides the focus and accuracy necessary for effective BTA infection diagnosis. The continuity of this process improves the efficiency by which diagnoses of BTA infections can be made.