Using Syndromic Surveillance Data to Aid Public Health Actions in Tennessee

Syndromic surveillance data is typically used for the monitoring of symptom combinations in patient chief complaints (i.e. syndromes) or health indicators within a population to inform public health actions. The Tennessee Department of Health collects emergency department (ED) data from more than 80 hospitals across Tennessee to support statewide situational awareness. Most hospitals in Tennessee provide data within 48 hours of the patient being seen in the emergency department.

June 18, 2019

Monitoring Out-of-State Patients during a 2017 Hurricane Response using ESSENCE

Syndromic surveillance is the monitoring of symptom combinations (i.e., syndromes) or other indicators within a population to inform public health actions. The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) collects emergency department (ED) data from more than 70 hospitals across Tennessee to support statewide syndromic surveillance activities. Hospitals in Tennessee typically provide data within 48 hours of a patient encounter.

January 19, 2018

Data Sharing Among Three States in the BioSense Platform during the 2017 US Solar Eclipse

In 2016, the BioSense Platform for national syndromic surveillance made substantial enhancements including data processing changes, a national ESSENCE instance, and management tools to support diverse data sharing needs. On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse occurred over much of the United States. The event resulted in large gatherings over multiple days to areas in the Path of Totality (PoT). In the days leading up to the event, public health and emergency preparedness included syndromic surveillance in their monitoring plans.

January 25, 2018

Creation of a Technical Tool to Improve Syndromic Surveillance Onboarding in Tennessee

Syndromic surveillance is commonly supported by information generated from electronic health record (EHR) systems and sent to public health via standardized messaging. Before public health can receive syndromic surveillance information from an EHR, a healthcare provider must demonstrate reliable and timely generation of messages according to national standards. This process is known as onboarding. Onboarding at the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) focused heavily on human review of HL7 messages.

January 25, 2018

Sensitivity and Specificity of the Fever Syndromes in BioSense and ESSENCE

Syndromic surveillance refers to the monitoring of disease related events, sets of clinical features (i.e. syndromes), or other indicators in a population. Tennessee obtains emergency department data for syndromic surveillance in standardized HL7 format following the field and value set standards published by the Public Health Information Network. Messages contain information previously unavailable to syndromic surveillance systems, including quantitative values such as recorded temperature.

September 08, 2017

Tractable Use Cases for Collaboration in Public Health Surveillance

The mission of the ISDS TCC is to bridge the gap between the analytic needs of public health practitioners and the expertise of researchers from other fields for the enhancement of disease surveillance, including situational awareness of chronic as well as infectious threats and follow-up activities such as case linkage and contact tracing.

November 06, 2017

So Long and Thanks for All the EARS: Lessons Learned from Tennessee’s Ongoing Syndromic Surveillance Transition

Syndromic surveillance generally refers to the monitoring of disease related events, sets of clinical features (i.e. syndromes), or other indicators in a population. Originally conceived as a tool for the early detection of potential bioterrorism outbreaks, syndromic surveillance is also used by health departments as a tool for monitoring seasonal illness, evaluating health interventions, and other health surveillance activities. Over the past decade, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) has utilized syndromic surveillance at the jurisdictional level.

November 27, 2017

Monitoring Population Changes for Emergency Management Support in Tennessee

In late summer 2017, the United States endured two severe hurricanes back to back. On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas and southwest Louisiana, dumping more than 19 trillion gallons of rain. On September 10, 2017, 20 days later, Hurricane Irma landed in Florida, leading residents across the Florida peninsula to evacuate inland and out of the path of the storm. Although Tennessee was far from the eye of the storms, state health officials knew residents from both states could choose to shelter in Tennessee.

February 27, 2018

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NSSP Community of Practice

Email: syndromic@cste.org

 

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