Syndromic Surveillance

The federal meaningful use initiative is a major driver to the establishment of expanded electronic syndromic surveillance capacity across the United States. Much has been documented about the background and requirements for eligible hospitals to achieve the syndromic meaningful use objectives. However, the role and efforts by public health agencies in the syndromic onboarding process, which varies by jurisdiction, is a significant component of the success of meaningful use. 

Objective

This presentation aims to highlight technical approaches, validation activities, outcomes, and lessons learned while onboarding local hospitals through a local health information exchange (HIE) for Meaningful Use Stage 2 syndromic surveillance

The LAC SSS has been in existence since 2004. Currently, the system collects data from over 50 hospitals daily and performs a chief complaint-based syndrome classification analysis of all ED visits. The keyword “fever” is of special interest due to its inclusion within several syndrome category definitions such as influenza, meningitis, etc. However, inclusion of such terms in syndrome definitions may be a disadvantage as such keyword searches would depend upon the consistency in which the term “fever” is reported. In 2014, several LAC syndromic surveillance hospital data connections were upgraded to include notes recording patient body temperature. To evaluate the newly added temperature information, analyses were conducted on those observations that included body temperature, chief complaint, and diagnosis information.

Objective

The Los Angeles County (LAC) Emergency Department (ED) Syndromic Surveillance System (SSS) classifies patients into syndrome categories based on stated chief complaints. In an effort to evaluate the accuracy of patient- stated chief complaints and final diagnoses, both “fever” chief complaints and diagnoses were compared with patient body temperature readings.

Syndromic surveillance has demonstrated utility for situational awareness for non-infectious conditions, including tracking and monitoring gun-related violence and homicides. While New York State reports an overall decrease in gun-related crimes, in NYC identifying smaller scale aberrations of gunshot-related violence can prompt more efficient response by city groups. We examined the temporal and borough-level characteristics of gunshot-related emergency department (ED) visits in NYC.

Objective

To describe epidemiological characteristics of gunshot-related injuries in New York City (NYC) using syndromic surveillance data

NC DETECT receives ICD-9-CM codes for emergency department (ED) visits and uses these codes in case definitions for syndromic surveillance (e.g. infectious disease, injury, etc.). Hospitals will begin using ICD-10-CM codes on October 1, 2015. As a result, preparations have been made to accommodate ICD-10-CM codes in NC DETECT for data transmission, receipt, processing and use in the NC DETECT Web Application.

Objective

To describe lessons learned from the transition to ICD-10-CM.

Fever is a top cause of morbidity in all age groups in Bangladesh and often classified as fever of unknown origin (FUO) in absence of any pathognomonic sign. Bangladesh with its long monsoon, frequent flooding, stagnant water, high temperature, humidity and largest density of animal and human population serves as an ideal place for zoonotic transmission of Leptospira.

Objective

To evaluate the necessity of a coordinated leptospira surveillance in Bangladesh through a systematic review.

Knowledge Management is defined as “the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge.” ISDS members have varying degrees of experience with public health surveillance and syndromic surveillance specifically, and will all benefit from more structured access to documentation on components related to syndromic surveillance, including but not limited to, the onboarding of facilities, data quality monitoring tools, case definitions, and data processing tools. To build a knowledge management capability, the first step is to gather initial requirements and priorities from the CoP.

Objective

The purpose of the roundtable is to seek feedback from attendees on the components needed to improve syndromic surveillance practice through access to the shared knowledge, practices, and tools of the ISDS Community of Practice (CoP).