Utility of a Syndromic Surveillance System to Identify Disease Outbreaks with Reportable Disease Data

Authors

  • Carrie Eggers Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL, United States
  • Janet Hamilton Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL, United States
  • Richard Hopkins Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL, United States

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v6i1.5197

Abstract

The sensitivity and predictive value of a surveillance system (ESSENCE-FL) originally designed for syndromic data to identify possible outbreak activity using data from a reportable disease system was examined.  ESSENCE-FL-generated alerts were compared with confirmed outbreak activity for different infectious diseases over a 52-week period.  Results showed that although overall sensitivity of the system to detect outbreak activity was fairly low, the positive predictive value was relatively high.  This evaluation concludes that the application of reportable disease data within the ESSENCE-FL syndromic surveillance system is useful for prompting users of possible outbreak activity that warrants further inquiry.

Author Biography

Carrie Eggers, Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, FL, United States

Prior to joining CDC's Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program, Carrie Eggers was a CDC/CSTE/ASTHO/PHII Applied Public Health Informatics Fellow at the Florida Department of Health where she was involved in the development of a centralized statewide outbreak documentation system for use by state and local epidemiologists. Ms. Eggers received her Master of Public Health at Emory University after undergraduate studies in Biology and Chemistry at California State University, San Marcos.

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Published

2014-03-09

How to Cite

Eggers, C., Hamilton, J., & Hopkins, R. (2014). Utility of a Syndromic Surveillance System to Identify Disease Outbreaks with Reportable Disease Data. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v6i1.5197

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Lightning Talks

License

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