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Syndromic surveillance using regional emergency medicine internet
Seth Foldy1, Paul A Biedrzycki, Edward N Barthell
1City of Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee, WI, USA. sfoldy@mcw.edu
Annals of Emergency Medicine
|August 28, 2004
Summary
Emergency department syndromic surveillance using an internet application proved feasible and useful for public health. This approach enabled rapid, low-staffing implementation for disease outbreak detection.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Traditional public health surveillance can strain resources during emergencies.
- The need for efficient, scalable surveillance systems is critical.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the feasibility and utility of emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance.
- To assess the impact on ED and public health staffing.
Main Methods:
- Established regional (multi-ED) syndromic surveillance via a secure internet application.
- Collected daily patient visit counts and trends during a sports event and a disease outbreak.
- Surveyed ED participants on project acceptability and time cost.
Main Results:
- Successfully implemented surveillance across multiple EDs during two distinct periods.
- Demonstrated rapid implementation for the second project (3 days) due to prior experience.
- Undertook surveillance efforts without requiring extraordinary staffing for ED or public health.
Conclusions:
- Regional internet-based syndromic surveillance allows for rapid, multisite implementation without additional staff.
- Simplified data collection at triage improved efficiency, addressing initial challenges.
- This model offers a sustainable solution for public health surveillance.