The University of Washington has been working since 2000 with partners in Washington State to advance bioterrorism (BT) detection and preparedness. This project collects data on patients presenting with influenza-like illnesses and other potentially BT-related syndromes at emergency departments and primary care clinics (Kitsap, Clallam, and Jefferson counties) using a secure automated informatics approach. Local health jurisdiction epidemiologists use a web-based interface to view de-identified data and use a version of CDC’s EARS disease detection algorithms to watch for variances in patterns of diagnoses, volume, time and space as part of the public health real-time disease surveillance system. This processed hospital data is also made available back to the officials and administrators at the reporting hospital.
Objective
To understand GIS issues in a rural-tourban setting and demonstrate limitations of ZIPcode-only approaches compared to census tract and block approaches.