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Electronic Surveillance

Timeliness of information has a key role in disease reporting, and may be easily impaired by several factors affecting data entry and utilization.1 Regarding data entry, previous studies have shown that monitoring strategies, such as telephone reminders and supervision visits ensure reporting timeliness.2 Likewise, limited reporting infrastructure may prevent adequate reporting and effective data utilization.3,4 The Peruvian Air Force, in collaboration with the US Naval Medical Research Center Detachment in Lima, Peru, implemented in 2009 an electronic disease surveillance system with the objective of establishing near real-time baseline estimates of disease trends, and detecting disease outbreaks in a timely manner. This system has proven to perform well, although reporting sites vary in their reporting infrastructure. Therefore, we attempted to test the effect of a lack of monitoring on the performance of reporting sites, and explore the influence of other factors potentially affecting timeliness.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to describe the effect of close monitoring on performance of the electronic disease surveillance system of the Peru Air Force.

Referenced File
Submitted by Magou on

The primary goal of the Electronic Syndromic Surveillance system (ESSS) is to monitor trends in non-specific symptoms of illness at the community level in real time. The ESSS includes emergency department chief complaint data that are categorized into eight syndromes: respiratory, gastrointestinal, fever, asthma, neurological, rash, carbon monoxide, and hypothermia. Since the onset of H1N1, fever syndrome has been used to monitor flu activity. As H1N1 spread nationwide, the need of visualizing flu activity geographically became clear, and urgent.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to describe a map application added to the New York state Electronic Syndromic Surveillance system (ESSS). The application allows system users to display the geographic distributions, and trends of fever syndrome that was used to monitor seasonal and H1N1 influenza activities.

Referenced File
Submitted by Magou on

The data elements required for the proper functionality of VA’s ESSENCE system are all currently available within VA’s 128 VistA systems. These data are made available to VA’s ESSENCE system via a series of complicated MUMPS extraction routines, multiple data transformations crossing multiple servers, networks, operating systems and HL7-parsing routines on a daily interval. With recent changes emerging in VA’s information technology infrastructure, a new data architecture supporting ESSENCE’s surveillance capabilities is becoming possible.

Objective

To describe the new data warehouse, HAIISS Data Warehouse (HDW) architecture whereby VA’s Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) will receive its required data elements from VA’s 128 VistA systems in a more accurate, robust and time sensitive manner.

Referenced File
Submitted by Magou on

The illegal wildlife trade is a multi-faceted, clandestine industry that has led to the disruption of fragile ecosystems, facilitated the spread of pathogens, and has led to the emergence of novel infectious diseases in humans, domestic animals, and native wildlife(1, 2). The trade is as diverse as it is large, with live and dead wildlife representing multiple species sold to satisfy human demands for food, medicine, pets and trophies. Wildlife are harvested at astonishing numbers and used for such things as exotic pets, ornamental jewelry and clothing, and traditional Chinese medicine(3). An estimated 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases originated from animals(4), which can include both live animals and animal products.

Objective

We aim to develop an automated, real-time, comprehensive, global system for monitoring official and unofficial reports of illegal wildlife trade activity, and to determine potential hot-spot regions for emerging zoonotic pathogens along commonly utilized illegal wildlife trade routes.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

Electronic epi-biosurveillance presents an opportunity to provide real-time disease surveillance alerts from remote areas to central disease management units, to rapidly decrease reporting times for reportable diseases, and to enable appropriate response scenarios to be put in place in a timely manner. Over the past year, with the support of GEIS and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, we have piloted an electronic disease reporting system in four sites in the Cameroon military and evaluated these surveillance efforts, to understand how such infrastructure may impact this resource-limited setting.

Objective

Pilot and evaluate an electronic disease surveillance system in the Cameroon military and assess the capabilities of this system to fulfill reporting and early warning requirements.

Submitted by knowledge_repo… on

Difficulties in timely acquisition and interpretation of accurate data on communicable diseases can impede outbreak detection and control. These limitations are of global importance: they contribute to avoidable morbidity, economic losses, and social disruption; and, in a globalized world, epidemics can spread rapidly to other susceptible populations.

SARS and the potential for an influenza pandemic highlighted the importance of global disease surveillance. Similarly, the World Health Organization’s newly implemented 2005 International Health Regulations require member countries to provide notification of emerging infectious diseases of potential global importance. The challenges arise when Ministries of Health (MoH) in resource-poor countries add these mandates to already over-burdened and under-funded surveillance systems. Appropriately adapted, electronic disease surveillance systems could provide the tools and approaches MOHs need to meet today’s surveillance challenges.

 

Objective

In this presentation we will discuss the concept of electronic disease surveillance in resource-poor settings, and the issues to be considered during system planning and implementation.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on
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