Syndromic surveillance is the surveillance of healthrelated data that precedes diagnosis to detect a disease outbreak or other health related event that warrants a public health response. Though syndromic surveillance is typically utilized to detect infectious disease outbreaks, its utility to detect bioterrorism events is increasingly being explored by public health agencies. Many agencies believe that syndromic surveillance holds great promise in enhancing our ability to detect both planned and unplanned outbreaks of disease and have made significant investments to develop syndromic surveillance capabilities.
For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has invested in Biosense and the Department of Defense has invested in the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) which it has deployed in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Homeland Security has invested heavily in the National Bio-surveillance Integration System which integrates a broad spectrum of bio-surveillance information including data from Biosense and ESSENCE. The University of Pittsburgh has also developed a prominent tool and is considered a thought leader in this space.
Despite the significant investments in the area of syndromic surveillance, the technology is young and the relatively small field remains fragmented. As a result, there is limited public information that addresses the field as a whole.
Objective
The objective of this assessment is to research, develop and maintain a national syndromic surveillance registry that describes each system’s configuration. By collecting current information on the leading systems we will gain a greater understanding of the syndromic surveillance landscape and capabilities.