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ICD9 as a Surrogate for Chart Review in the Validation of a Chief Complaint Syndromic Surveillance System

Description

The existing New York State Department of Health emergency department syndromic surveillance system has used patient’s chief complaint (CC) for assigning to six syndrome categories (Respiratory, Fever, Gastrointestinal, Neurological, Rash, Asthma). The sensitivity and specificity of the CC computer algorithms that assign CC to syndrome categories are determined by using chart review as the criterion standard. These analyses are used to refine the algorithm and to evaluate the effect of changes in the syndrome definitions. However, the chart review (CR) method is labor intensive and expensive. Using an automated ICD9 code-based assignment as a surrogate for chart review could offer a significant cost reduction in this process and allow us to survey a much larger sample of visits.

Submitted by elamb on