Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance
- Infectious disease outbreak surveillance tool
- Automatic categorization of chief complaints from ED triage computers
- Graphically displayed and compared to historical norms to highlight anomalies
- Allows for effective resource / staffing management
Cissec Corporation provides consulting and implementation services to Public Health Units and other authorities looking to implement the RODS open source electronic system for early detection and tracking of infectious disease outbreaks.
The Syndromic Surveillance system automatically collects data from area hospital’s
emergency department triage computers. The application text mines the chief complaints
of patients as recorded by the triage nurse and, using sophisticated algorithms,
categorizes them into several syndromes such as Gastro-intestinal, Respiratory,
Fever ILI (influenza like illness), etc. The information is collated and displayed
on time/date graphs and compared against historical data to visually indicate any
anomalies which can then be analyzed by epidemiologists for appropriate management
and response.
As background, the system is based on the RODS (Real-time Outbreak Detection System)
open source application. This was initially developed at the University of Pittsburgh
for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security specifically to address bio-terrorism
concerns associated with the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Cissec provided
the technology component of QUESST (Queen’s University Emergency Syndromic Surveillance
Team) as part of an Ontario Ministry of Health and Public Health initiative in 2005/2006.
Our engineers enhanced and “Canadianized” the RODS application by improving its
text mining capabilities and implementing geospatial mapping for the eastern Ontario
region. Cissec also integrated the system, using HL-7 interfaces, with several regional
hospitals who participated in the project. Most facilities provided real-time data
feeds while some sent batched data accumulated hourly or daily. That successful
project was implemented at Kingston’s KFLA Public Health Unit and continues to provide
data used for the geospatial maps displayed in the Infection Watch Live component
of their website: http://www.kflainfectionwatch.com/KFLAMapping/livemaps.aspx
Please contact Cissec if you are interested in implementing this system as part
of your municipality, LHIN or health authority pandemic plan to address the realities
of managing the allocation of resources in the event of a serious infectious outbreak.