9-1-1 Call Data Modeling to Assess the Influence of a Mass Gathering on Host Community Metrics for Syndromic...

Multi-day planned mass gatherings are prevalent in various forms of sports competitions, concerts, professional, political, and religious conferences. The largest, the World Cup competition, will be hosted by large cities of the United States, Canada, and Mexico in June and July, 2026. These can present risks to the health of spectators, participants, organizers, and host communities, which if discovered faster, facilitates more effective responses in preventing morbidity/mortality. This study demonstrates visually modeled 9-1-1 medical data that uniquely contributes to existing syndromic surveillance activities by its practicality and time sensitivity.

Using data from the nine-day period of 2019 Super Bowl LIII festivities, this retrospective, quantitative, descriptive, population-based study was conducted to demonstrate how 9-1-1 emergency medical dispatch (EMD) data could be practically modeled to more rapidly detect changes from baseline host community 9-1-1 data. Our ultimate objective is to illustrate these visual models in the attempt to improve syndromic surveillance.

All 9-1-1 medical calls from three host municipalities were processed and categorized at the Grady Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Communications Center during game day and eight preceding days of festivities (time frame-standardized to nine-day events period). This events period call volume was contrasted to that of the identical nine-day pre- and post-events periods. The mean 24 one-hour interval call volumes for each day of these three periods were analyzed. Data visualization techniques (a data table, bar graphs, geo-, and heat-mapping) were constructed to illustrate differences in 9-1-1 call volumes of three categories (hypothermia, traffic injury incidents, and violence-induced injuries), for the three periods. The most similar previous such studies were reviewed and related to our study.

The events period call volume (3,267) was less than that in pre- (3,356) and post-(3,460) events totals. Directional (increasing versus decreasing) patterns in hourly call frequencies were similar among all three periods. Cold exposure calls decreased across the three periods (successive period were 9, 7, and 4 respectively). Changes in traffic incidents were minimal (36, 39, and 38, respectively). Violent act injury calls increased during the post-events period (151, 150, and 166, respectively).

Data from 9-1-1 calls could provide readily discoverable trends reflective of clinically significant syndromes threatening host community health status associated with planned mass gatherings. The study demonstrates practical data modeling to enhance syndromic surveillance. Recommendations are offered for enhancing 9-1-1 data analysis in conducting syndromic surveillance.