TY - JOUR AU - Holtry, Rekha S AU - Hung, Lang M AU - Lewis, Sheri H. PY - 2010/12/23 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Utility of the ESSENCE Surveillance System in Monitoring the H1N1 Outbreak JF - Online Journal of Public Health Informatics JA - OJPHI VL - 2 IS - 3 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.5210/ojphi.v2i3.3028 UR - https://ojphi.org/ojs/index.php/ojphi/article/view/3028 SP - AB - The Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics (ESSENCE) enables health care practitioners to detect and monitor health indicators of public health importance. ESSENCE is used by public health departments in the National Capital Region (NCR); a cross-jurisdictional data sharing agreement has allowed cooperative health information sharing in the region since 2004. Emergency department visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) in the NCR from 2008 are compared to those of 2009. Important differences in the rates, timing, and demographic composition of ILI visits were found. By monitoring a regional surveillance system, public health practitioners had an increased ability to understand the magnitude and character of different ILI outbreaks. This increased ability provided crucial community-level information on which to base response and control measures for the novel 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak. This report underscores the utility of automated surveillance systems in monitoring community-based outbreaks. ER -