Syndromic Surveillance
What is Syndromic Surveillance?
Syndromic surveillance refers to the systematic
collection, grouping, and tracking of reason for visit-type
data. Syndromic surveillance is not tied to reportable
conditions or laboratory results, but rather is a set of
information shared for all patient visits. (Or all
visits of a certain type, such as all emergency department
and urgent care visits.) Health care visit information is
de-identified and grouped into “syndromes.” Syndromes are
categories of visits that may be similar. Commonly used
syndromes include: respiratory, gastrointestinal,
neurologic, rash, sepsis, injury, animal bites, and severe
illness/death. A typical syndromic surveillance system will
alert the user when there are more visits of a particular
syndrome than expected, based on past visits. NDDoH then
follows up on any identified data anomaly to see if there
might be a reason for unexpected increase.
Contact
If you have questions abpit the NDDoH Syndromic
Surveillance Program, please contact Levi Schlosser,
Syndromic Surveillance Coordinator for the North Dakota
Department of Health at
lschlosser@nd.gov or call 701.328.2378.
For questions about Meaningful Use, or establishing a
syndromic surveillance feed with the NDDoH, please visit our
Meaningful Use
Page.