CDC is building a public health information grid to enable controlled distribution of data, services and applications for researchers, Federal authorities, local and state health departments nationwide, enabling efficient controlled sharing of data and analytical tools. Federated aggregate analysis of distributed data sources may detect clusters that might be invisible to smaller, isolated systems. Success of the public health grid is contingent upon the number of participating agencies and the quantity, quality, and utility of data and applications available for sharing. Grid protocols allow data owners to control data access, but requires a model to control the level of identifiability of depending upon the user’s permissions. Here, we describe a work currently in progress involving the design and implementation of an ambulatory syndromic surveillance data stream generator for the public health grid. The project is intended to broadly disseminate aggregate syndrome counts for general use by the public health community, to develop a model for sharing varying levels of identifiable data on cases depending upon the user, and to facilitate ongoing development of the grid.
Objective
To implement a syndromic surveillance system on CDC’s public health information grid, capable of securely distributing syndromic data streams ranging from aggregate case counts to individual case details, to appropriate personnel.