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Published on: December 9, 2015
The application of a novel 'rising activity, multi-level mixed effects, indicator emphasis' (RAMMIE) method for
Roger A Morbey1, Alex J Elliot1, Andre Charlett2
1Real-time Syndromic Surveillance Team, Public Health England, Birmingham B3 2PW, UK and.
Motivation:
Syndromic surveillance is the real-time collection and interpretation of data to allow the early identification of public health threats and their impact, enabling public health action. The 'rising activity, multi-level mixed effects, indicator emphasis' method was developed to provide a single robust method enabling detection of unusual activity across a wide range of syndromes, nationally and locally.
Results:
The method is shown here to have a high sensitivity (92%) and specificity (99%) compared to previous methods, whilst halving the time taken to detect increased activity to 1.3 days.
Availability And Implementation:
The method has been applied successfully to syndromic surveillance systems in England providing realistic models for baseline activity and utilizing prioritization rules to ensure a manageable number of 'alarms' each day.
Contact:
roger.morbey@phe.gov.uk.
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