Using the Emergency Medical Text Processor to Standardize Chief Complaints in Boston's Syndromic Surveillance System

Abbreviation, misspellings, and site specific terminology may misclassify chief complaints syndromes. The Emergency Medical Text Processor (EMT-P) is system that cleans emergency department chief complaints and returns standard terms. However, little information is available on the implementation of EMT-P in a syndromic surveillance system.

Objective

To describe the implementation and baseline evaluation of EMT-P developed by the University of North Carolina.