The ESSENCE application supports users' interactive analysis of data by clicking through menus in a user interface (UI), and provides multiple types of user defined data visualization options, including various charts and graphs, tables of statistical alerts, table builder functionality, spatial mapping, and report generation. However, no UI supports all potential analysis and visualization requirements. Rapidly accessing data processed through ESSENCE using existing access control mechanisms, but de-coupled from the UI, supports innovative analyses, visualizations and reporting of these data using other tools.

Objective: To describe and provide examples of the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) application programming interface (API) as a part of disease surveillance workflows.