Utility of System Generated Syndromic Surveillance Alerts to Detect Reportable Disease Outbreaks

Authors

  • Carrie Eggers Bureau of Epidemiology, Florida Department of Health
  • Aaron Kite-Powell Bureau of Epidemiology, Florida Department of Health
  • Janet Hamilton Bureau of Epidemiology, Florida Department of Health

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4547

Abstract

In light of recent outbreaks of pertussis, the ability of Florida Department of Health's (FDOH) Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE-FL) to detect emergent disease outbreaks was examined. Florida's syndromic surveillance system, ESSENCE-FL, has the capacity to monitor reportable disease case data from Merlin, the Bureau of Epidemiology's secure web-based reporting and epidemiologic analysis system. In this study we determine the utility of ESSENCE-FL system generated disease alerts originally designed for use with emergency department chief complaint data to reportable disease data to assist in timely detection of outbreaks to promote appropriate response measures.

Author Biography

Carrie Eggers, Bureau of Epidemiology, Florida Department of Health

Carrie Eggers joined the Bureau of Epidemiology at Florida Department of Health as a CDC/CSTE Applied Public Health Informatics Fellow after receiving her MPH in Applied Epidemiology from Emory University. Her projects at the bureau include the development of a central outbreak documentation system for timely recording of all outbreak investigations in Florida. Prior to her placement, she worked in lung cancer research at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute, collaborating in clinical trials while investigating metastasis.

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Published

2013-03-24

How to Cite

Eggers, C., Kite-Powell, A., & Hamilton, J. (2013). Utility of System Generated Syndromic Surveillance Alerts to Detect Reportable Disease Outbreaks. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4547

Issue

Section

Oral Presentations: Disease Surveillance Methods