Purpose
National coverage of information from ambulatory visits and calls to nurse help lines for over 20
million people is collected each day, analyzed and used to identify unusual
clusters of illness that might represent bioterrorism events or other outbreaks
of public health importance.
The Data
Participating health plans transmit data on a daily basis to the data-coordinating center at
the Channing Laboratory. This data consists of the aggregate number of
encounters (patient visits or calls) for new episodes of illness categorized by
zip code of residence and by syndrome. Encounter-level data remains at the
health plan, preserving the integrity of patient privacy.
Identifying Unusual Clusters of Illness
Statistical models are used to assign a significance
level to the aggregate numbers of encounters to identify unusual clusters
of illness. These models account for the
type of illness, geographic region, and month of year and day of week on which
the encounter occurred. They allow participating state and local health departments
to identify and focus on clusters that exceed whatever threshold they consider
important. Public health personnel can elect to be automatically notified of
clusters exceeding these specified thresholds and thus alerted to potential bioterrorism
activity.
An example cluster in Massachusetts
Participating Organizations
All Participants
Organizations and communities interested in participating can send requests for
information to
the program
administrative officer.
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