The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) and its ability to use hospital emergency room data for situational awareness.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) data offers the researcher a potentially rich source of data for tracking disease syndromes. Procedures performed on the patient, medications prescribed (not necessarily filled by the patient), and reason for visit are just some characteristics of the patient encounter that are available through an EHR that can be used to define surveillance syndromes. Since procedures have not been used frequently in defining syndromes, encounter level procedures data, extracted from the EHR of a large local primary care practice with about 200,000 patient encounters per year was used to identify procedures associated with an established respiratory syndrome.
Objective
To investigate the utility of different sources of patient encounter information, particularly in the primary care setting, that can be used to characterize surveillance syndromes, such as respiratory or flu.
Currently, Indiana monitors emergency department patient chief complaint data from 73 geographically dispersed hospitals. These data are analyzed using the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics application.
While researchers continue to improve syndromic detection methods, there is significant interest among public health practitioners regarding how to most effectively use the currently available tools. The Public Health Emergency Surveillance System (PHESS) staff have developed and refined a daily syndromic alert analysis and response process based on experiences gained since November 2004.
Objective
This paper describes how the Indiana State Department of Health PHESS staff responded to a syndromic surveillance alert related to a bioterrorism preparedness event.
In the fall of 2006, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) proactively began general discussions regarding surveillance issues of mutual interest. Both states, having operational syndromic surveillance systems, thought value could be added to one another’s program by sharing data across their common border. Ohio receives emergency department chief complaint data from 130 of its hospitals; Indiana from 76 hospitals. The ODH uses the EpiCenter System managed by Health Monitoring Systems, while the ISDH Public Health Emergency Service System uses Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Communitybased Epidemics. Each state desired to view the new shared data through its own system. A formal memorandum of understanding was developed and signed by both states to support syndromic data sharing. Data began flowing between the two states in April, 2008.
Objective
The ODH and the ISDH enhanced their individual syndromic surveillance efforts through cross-border sharing of emergency department chief complaint data.
A large event such as the Super Bowl that attracts over 120,000 visitors to an area within a short period of time has the potential to increase the risk of communicable diseases and environmental hazards in a community in addition to the possibility of a bioterrorist attack. Though Miami-Dade County Health Department has in place a syndromic surveillance system, additional public health measures were implemented to ensure the health and safety of all residents and visitors in the weeks surrounding the February 4th event.
OBJECTIVE
To identify unusual patterns of communicable diseases, health events or bioterrorism-related activity in Miami-Dade County immediately before, during and after Super Bowl XLI.
The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducts enhanced surveillance using the Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE). The current version of ESSENCE for the National Capital Region consists of information from multiple data sources for syndromic surveillance in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. Chief complaint data from emergency department (ED) visits and over-the-counter (OTC) medications are categorized into syndromes and alerts are generated when observed counts are outside the expected range. ESSENCE alerts users to unusual counts of a particular syndrome based on both temporal and spatial distribution for enhanced surveillance of disease activity. While several studies have examined the usefulness of ED data to detect the start of the influenza season, a lack of information exists on the usability of OTC sales to detect influenza. OTC data may provide an earlier alert to illness than other sources, if people self-treat with OTC medications.
Objective
This study examines the ability of syndromic surveillance data to detect seasonal influenza. ED visits for influenza-like illness and OTC flu medication sales are evaluated to determine whether these data sources are useful in the detection of the influenza season. Data sources that can detect seasonal influenza may also be used to help detect the start of pandemic influenza.
On June 7, 2008, federal food protection and public health agencies alerted consumers of a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul infections. As of June 30, 2008, 851 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint had been identified in 36 states and the District of Columbia since April 20081. On June 13, 2008, Maryland confirmed its first case of Salmonella Saintpaul infection matching the national outbreak strain and as of June 30, 2008, 29 cases of Salmonella related to the outbreak have been identified.
Objective
The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of syndromic surveillance emergency department data as a tool for enhanced case finding of outbreak-related illnesses.
A significant amount of resources and effort have been recently invested in syndromic surveillance systems. However, how these systems complement or compare with traditional public health surveillance systems, such as outbreak reporting, is not clear.
Objective:
The purpose of this paper is to describe the value of outbreak and syndromic surveillance data from the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) syndromic surveillance system to monitor respiratory illness activity in Maryland.
To describe how the Miami-Dade County Health Department (MDCHD) has expanded Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community Based Epidemics (ESSENCE) for specialized research in addition to daily surveillance activities
This abstract describes a suite of software utilities that have been developed for systematically evaluating the detection performance and robustness of univariate temporal alerting algorithms used in syndromic surveillance systems.