Use of syndromic surveillance in decision making during the H1N1 pandemic in Ontario, Canada

For public health surveillance to achieve its desired purpose of reducing morbidity and mortality, surveillance data must be linked to public health response. While there is evidence of the growing popularity of syndromic surveillance (1,2), the impact or value added with its application to public health responses is not well described (3).

Objective

To describe if and how syndromic surveillance data influenced public health decisions made during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic within the context of other existing public health surveillance systems.