Syndromic surveillance based on emergency department activity and crude mortality: two examples

Area of Science:

• Public Health Surveillance
• Epidemiology
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Public health crises necessitate rapid information access for effective decision-making.
• Routine data from existing providers can offer timely public health insights.
• The Institut national de veille sanitaire (InVS) initiated a pilot network to explore real-time data integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and utility of a pilot network collecting real-time data from hospital emergency departments and mortality registers.
• To assess the correlation between emergency department data, sentinel network data, and mortality data during influenza outbreaks.
• To investigate the relationship between environmental health data (heat) and mortality.

Main Methods:

• Collected real-time data from hospital emergency departments (computerized medical files) and mortality data (national statistics institute - Insee).
• Data transmitted automatically on a daily basis for analysis.
• Compared influenza data with sentinel network data (Sentiweb) and environmental health data with meteorological temperatures.

Main Results:

• Significant correlation (p<0.001) found between emergency department influenza data and sentinel network data for 2004/05 and 2005/06 outbreaks.
• Both data sources similarly identified the onset of influenza outbreaks in 2005 and 2006.
• Significant correlation observed between certain diagnoses and temperature increases, with mortality showing a 1-2 week lag for both influenza and heat events.

Conclusions:

• This study represents a novel approach using real-time morbidity and mortality data for public health surveillance.
• Simultaneous analysis of integrated data sources enables rapid assessment of public health phenomena's impact.
• The pilot network demonstrates the complementary nature of emergency department, mortality, and environmental data for timely public health response.