Propagating the Effects of Missing Data Sources in a Surveillance System

A common problem in syndromic surveillance using ED department data is temporary gaps in the data received from individual ED departments caused by delays in receiving the data.

Currently most syndromic surveillance systems provide information about the status of the data sources feeding into the system, for example on the home page of the system, but do not show the effects of any missing data sources on individual derived data elements (except in that graphs may show obvious drops in counts on days when data sources are missing).