Utility of the ESSENCE System for Surveillance of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) in Miami-Dade County

The threat of pandemic and seasonal influenza has drawn attention to syndromic surveillance systems for early detection of influenza-like illness. Since 2005, the Miami-Dade County Health Department has implemented ESSENCE (Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics) to monitor emergency department data for influenza-like Illness (ILI) using chief complaint information. This study evaluates the ability of the ESSENCE ILI chief complaint grouping for identifying true ICD-9 diagnosed influenza.

Objective

Previous studies have examined the utility of different methods of syndromic grouping. This study evaluates the utility of ESSENCE for ILI surveillance.