The ASTER system aims at providing an integrated real time epidemiological status of all the French Forces deployed abroad1. But, unlike usual surveillance systems, ASTER must cover several target populations exposed to different biological and chemical threats, and the surveillance of each population must be tailored to meet its specific risk profile2. Moreover, a surveillance may change at any moment, depending on the evolution of the nature of the threats. For coping with these highly varying surveillance profiles within a same surveillance system, we have developed a formal surveillance system model we have used for designing the collaborations of the system components and allowing the required surveillance versatility.
Objective
This paper briefly describes the model for surveillance system design that is used by the ASTER system, which is progressively deployed within the French Forces.