Syndrome surveillance can catch other disease info

Volume 10, Number 5May 2004 Richard Heffernan Syndromic Surveillance in Public Health Practice, Ne !or" #ity New
York, USA; and$ Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilrim Health !are, "oston, Massachusetts, USA
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Surveillance systems that use e/istin electronic data can #rovide
timely information a0out the health of the #o#ulation at low cost and
with minimal effort on the #art of data #roviders& %ur &yndromic &urveillance &y&tem1it2
has hel#ed detect communitywide out0reaks and reassure the #u0lic
durin' hi'h()ro*ile )ublic event&+ ,t can be readily ada)ted to other u&e&, and we have e/#lored this
#otential 0y trackin emer'ency de)artment vi&it& *or asthma, do 0ites, heat+related
illness, suicide, and dru overdoses& 3e have used the system to
find cases of rash illness, measles, anthra/ #owder hoa/es, #utative
s#ider 0ites, and 0otulismlike illness& Nevertheless, syndromic
surveillance systems are essentially 4smoke detectors5 and call for
#rom#t investiation and res#onse i* they are to )rovide early arnin' o* outbrea"&+ Syndromic
&urveillance &hould be vieed a& an ad-unct to, not a re)lacement o*, traditional di&ea&e &urveillance+ .or many, i* not all, &tate and local
)ublic health de)artment&, the em)ha&i& o* bioterrori&m )re)aration &hould be on hirin' ell(trained )ublic health )ro*e&&ional& ith
re&)on&ibilitie& beyond bioterrori&m+