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Using Syndromic Surveillance Data for Enhanced Case-Capture of Conditions of Public Health Interest

Description

Syndromic surveillance can be a useful tool for the early recognition of outbreaks and trends in emergency department (ED) data. In addition, as a more timely data source than traditional disease reporting, syndromic data may also be leveraged to identify individual disease cases, increasing the utility for first time or redundant case recognition.

San Diego County (COSD) performs daily ED syndromic surveillance. In order to assess the utility for early identification of specific conditions of public health interest (e.g., salmonellosis, meningitis, hazardous exposures, heat-related illness), a novel process entitled Priority Infectious Conditions Capture, was developed.

 

Objective

This paper describes an assessment of an enhanced surveillance process used to identify reportable diseases and conditions of public health importance from ED chief complaint data in COSD.

Submitted by elamb on