Redefining Syndromic Surveillance

Authors

  • Amy Ising Emergency Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
  • Larissa May The George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC, United States
  • Charlie Ishikawa International Society for Disease Surveillance, Boston, MA, United States

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v6i1.5159

Abstract

There is no consensus regarding a standard definition encompassing the full scope of the term 'syndromic surveillance' that accurately describes the various data sources and data elements (both pre-diagnostic and diagnostic) used in this surveillance method. In this roundtable, we will solicit feedback and aim to create a more accurate and comprehensive definition of syndromic surveillance. The facilitators will provide a list of commonly used definitions for syndromic surveillance collated from the literature and websites and ask roundtable participants to categorize the strengths and weaknesses of these definitions.  We will then identify key terms and concepts to include in a new definition.

Author Biographies

Amy Ising, Emergency Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

Amy Ising, MS is the Program Director for the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT) in the Carolina Center for Health Informatics in the UNC Department of Emergency Medicine. She has contributed to the design, development, implementation and maintenance of NC DETECT and its precursor NCEDD since 2000. She is an Adjunct Instructor in the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Epidemiology and Board Member of the International Society for Disease Surveillance.

Larissa May, The George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC, United States

Larissa May, MD, MSPH is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Board certified in emergency medicine, she also holds a master's degree in public health microbiology and emerging infectious diseases. Dr May's areas of expertise are the use of the electronic health record for emergency department based clinical and public health surveillance research as well as the application of syndromic surveillance in low and medium resource settings.

Charlie Ishikawa, International Society for Disease Surveillance, Boston, MA, United States

Charlie Ishikawa is Associate Director for Public Health Programs in ISDS. Charlie brings his 13+ years of experience in local, regional and national public health planning to advise and coordinate Society activities for Meaningful Use, BioSense 2.0, and other public health practice matters.

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Published

2014-03-09

How to Cite

Ising, A., May, L., & Ishikawa, C. (2014). Redefining Syndromic Surveillance. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v6i1.5159

Issue

Section

Roundtables