Skip to main content

ESSENCE

This is a cluster of syndromes created to populate an extreme weather myESSENCE tab. The intent was to increase repeatability of our weather surveillance and have something where a user can use the "Change Region" option to select whatever county, or counties, experienced storm activity. This is still a major work-in progress.

All of this as done in NSSP ESSENCE on Emergency Room data. Fields are specified by each syndrome definition.

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

This syndrome was created to query NSSP ESSENCE on CO Poisoning and Exposure

Kansas just made CO Poisoning a mandatory reportable disease, but this was done so rapidly that hospital didn't have the chance to get reporting measures/alerts in place so many of our CO Poisonings went unreported. This set of queries was created to find these cases through EDs and then educate/remind hospitals of the legislation changes.

Submitted by ZSteinKS on
Description

Reportable disease case data are entered into Merlin by all 67 county health departments in Florida and assigned confirmed, probable, or suspect case status. De-identified reportable disease data from Merlin are sent to ESSENCE-FL once an hour for further analysis and visualization using tools in the surveillance system. These data are available for ad hoc queries, allowing users to monitor disease trends, observe unusual changes in disease activity, and to provide timely situational awareness of emerging events. Based on system algorithms, reportable disease case weekly tallies are assigned an awareness status of increasing intensity from normal to an alert category. These statuses are constantly scrutinized by county and state level epidemiologists to guide disease control efforts in a timely manner, but may not signify definitive actionable information.

 

Objective

In light of recent outbreaks of pertussis, the ability of Florida Department of Health’s (FDOH) Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE-FL) to detect emergent disease outbreaks was examined. Through a partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), FDOH developed a syndromic surveillance system, ESSENCE-FL, with the capacity to monitor reportable disease case data from Merlin, the FDOH Bureau of Epidemiology’s secure webbased reporting and epidemiologic analysis system for reportable diseases. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the utility and application of ESSENCE-FL system generated disease warnings and alerts originally designed for use with emergency department chief complaint data to reportable disease data to assist in timely detection of outbreaks in promotion of appropriate response and control measures.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Florida has implemented various surveillance methods to augment existing sources of surveillance data and enhance decision making with timely evidence based assessments to guide response efforts post-hurricanes. Historically, data collected from deployed federal assets have been an integral part of this effort. However, a number of factors have made this type of surveillance challenging: logistical is- sues of field work in a post-disaster environment, the resource inten- sive manual data collection process from DMAT sites, and delayed analysis and interpretation of these data to inform decision makers. The ESSENCE-FL system is an automated and secure web-based ap- plication accessed by FDOH epidemiologists and staff at participat- ing hospitals.

Objective

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH), Bureau of Epidemi- ology, partnered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to improve surveillance methods in post dis- aster or response events. A new process was implemented for con- ducting surveillance to monitor injury and illness for those presenting for care to ASPR assets such as Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) sites when they are operational in the state. The purpose of the current work was to field test and document the operational ex- perience of the newly implemented ASPR data module in ESSENCE- FL (syndromic surveillance system) to receive near real-time automated data feeds when ASPR federal assets were deployed in Florida during the 2012 Republican National Convention (RNC).

Submitted by dbedford on
Description

The new 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), a legally binding instrument for all 194 WHO member countries, significantly expanded the scope of reportable conditions and are intended to help prevent and respond to global public health threats. SAGES aims to improve local public health surveillance and IHR compliance with particular emphasis on resource-limited settings. More than a decade ago, in collaboration with the US Department of Defense (DoD), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) developed the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE). ESSENCE collects, processes, and analyzes non-traditional data sources (i.e. chief complaints from hospital emergency departments, school absentee data, poison control center calls, over-the-counter pharmaceutical sales, etc.) to identify anomalous disease activity in a community. The data can be queried, analyzed, and visualized both temporally and spatially by the end user. The current SAGES initiative leverages the experience gained in the development of ESSENCE, and the analysis and visualization components of SAGES are built with the same features in mind.

Objective

The Suite for Automated Global Electronic bioSurveillance (SAGES) is a collection of modular, flexible, open-source software tools for electronic disease surveillance in resource-limited settings. This demonstration will illustrate several new innovations and update attendees on new users in Africa and Asia.

Submitted by ynwang@ufl.edu on
Description

In 2010, there were 4,796 snake bite exposures reported to Poison Centers nationwide (1). Health care providers frequently request help from poison centers regarding snake envenomations due to the unpredictability and complexity of prognosis and treatment. The Missouri Poison Center (MoPC) maintains a surveillance database keeping track of every phone call received. ESSENCE, a syndromic surveillance system used in Missouri, enables surveillance by chief complaint of 84 different emergency departments (ED) in Missouri (accounting for approximately 90% of all ED visits statewide). Since calling a poison center is voluntary for health care providers, poison center data is most likely an underestimation of the true frequency of snake envenomations. Comparing MoPC and ESSENCE data for snake envenomations would enable the MoPC to have a more accurate depiction of snake bite frequency in Missouri and to see where future outreach of poison center awareness should be focused.

Objective

This study intends to use two different surveillance systems available in Missouri to explore snake bite frequency and geographic distribution.

Submitted by uysz on
Description

Syndromic surveillance offers the potential for earlier detection of bioterrorism, outbreaks, and other public health emergencies than traditional disease surveillance. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Office of Preparedness and Response (OP&R) conducts syndromic surveillance using the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE). Since its inception, ESSENCE has been a vital tool for DHMH, providing continuous situational awareness for public health policy decision makers. It has been established in the public health community that syndromic surveillance data, including school absenteeism data, has efficacy in monitoring disease, and specifically, influenza activity. Schools have the potential to play a major role in the spread of disease during an epidemic. Therefore, having school absenteeism data in ESSENCE would provide the opportunity to monitor schools throughout the school year and take appropriate actions to mitigate infections and the spread of disease.

Objective

The state of Maryland has incorporated 100% of its public school systems into a statewide disease surveillance system. This session will discuss the process, challenges, and best practices for expanding the ESSENCE system to include school absenteeism data as part of disease surveillance. It will also discuss the plans that Maryland has for using this new data source, as well as the potential for further expansion.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

Extreme heat events caused by high environmental temperatures are considered a major cause of weather-related deaths and injury in the United States. These events can result in a spectrum of conditions known as heat-related illnesses (HRIs), which range from minor to life threating symptoms. In Arizona, HRIs account for more than 2,000 emergency room visits and 118 deaths each year. In 2012, there were a total of 1,572 emergency department visits related to HRIs.

Submitted by Anonymous on

This is a preliminary Chronic Pain-Related Syndrome, created to search relevant ICD10 and a few key terms in emergency department visits in ESSENCE. The codes and terms are specific to non-cancer related chronic pain with exclusions of cases receiving cancer-related ICD10.

ICD10 codes were selected by translating the following ICD9 codes for Chronic Pain contained in this PDF (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/pdo_guide_to_icd-9-cm_and_icd-10_c…)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

Presented March 27, 2018.

During this 90-minute session, Aaron Kite-Powell, M.S., from CDC and Wayne Loschen, M.S., from JHU-APL provided an overview of tips and tricks in ESSENCE and answered questions from the audience regarding ESSENCE functions, capabilities and uses.