Background: Most disease surveillance is conducted passively via physician reports meeting case definitions. However, these reports may be untimely to detect disease emergencies, whether naturally occurring or resulting from a bioterrorist act. Conducting surveillance on clinical syndromes (“Syndromic Surveillance”) before a diagnosis is made may expedite outbreak recognition of diseases or clinical conditions. Objective: This paper will present efforts to implement a near real-time “syndromic surveillance” system for asthma intended to identify any increased incidence of asthma based on historical trends. Several data sources will be analyzed and evaluated for utility in surveillance system implementation. Methods: Data sources include information from: (1) a nurse advice line; (2) an emergency department; (3) a pediatric urgent care clinic; (4) hospital admissions; and (5) community clinics, all in the Denver area. Data source evaluation, for calendar year 2000, includes: information availability, number of reports, accuracy, and timeliness. Results: The greatest number of probable asthma reports were received through the community clinics (5123). This was followed by information received through: the pediatric urgent care clinic (593); the emergency department (409); hospital admissions (255); and the nurse advice line (38 reports from 8/1/00 to 12/31/00). Each of these data sources can be obtained on a daily basis. Conclusions: Information gathered through community clinics was most helpful in identifying the magnitude of probable asthma cases. Further evaluation is required before syndromic surveillance is considered a useful surveillance instrument.
Learning Objectives: (1) Define syndromic surveillance (2) List data sources that may play a role in syndromic surveillance (3) Describe analytic methods that are applicable to syndromic surveillance data
Keywords: Information Systems, Surveillance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Denver Center for Advanced Public Health Preparedness, Denver Public Health, Denver Health
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.