Syndromic Surveillance utilizes health-related symptom data to monitor disease outbreaks. Its’ potential for prompt detection of disease outbreaks and strengthening of rapid public health response is anticipated. As a result, syndromic surveillance is widely employed by many local and regional health care agencies across the country in both routine monitoring of disease outbreaks as well as in special national events. However, the efficacy and effectiveness of syndromic surveillance are yet to be substantiated. In Florida many localized Syndromic Surveillance have been deployed by county health departments with little oversight or coordination of any state and federal agencies. Furthermore, many aspects including the design, operation, and funding characteristics of these systems are not well known and information and practice are not shared, hindering the potential for regional networks with shared data source, networked platform, expanded geographic coverage. This survey aims to establish an inventory of Syndromic Surveillance in the State of Florida and helps identify issues common among these systems.
Objective
To gather inventory information on syndromic surveillance deployment and utilization in the State of Florida; To identify issues in developing, operating, and sustaining local systems; To assess needs for system evaluation in order to establish efficacy and effectiveness of syndromic/disease surveillance in the state.