Reportable Disease

Current influenza-like illness monitoring in Idaho is on the basis of syndromic surveillance using laboratory data, combined with periodic person-to-person reports collected by Idaho state workers. This system relies on voluntary reporting. Electronic medical records with relational databases offer a method of obtaining data in an automated fashion. Clinical data entered in CPRS includes real-time visit information, vital signs, ICD-9, pharmacy, and labs. ICD-9 and vital signs have been used to predict influenza-like illness in automated systems. We sought to combine these with lab and pharmacy data as part of an automated syndromic surveillance system.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to study whether syndromic surveillance using data from the Veterans Administration electronic medical record computerized patient record system (CPRS) correlates to officially reported influenza activity levels in the State of Idaho.

Florida Department of Health has developed a statewide syndromic surveillance system based on the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE). Authorized users can currently access data from the Florida Poison Information Center Network (FPICN), Emergency Room chief complaints, Florida reportable disease system (Merlin) and the Florida death records through ESSENCE under one portal. The purpose of this paper is to summarize efforts to enhance statewide real-time chemical surveillance by incorporating FPICN data into ESSENCE.