Clinical Laboratory Data for Biosurveillance

Abstract

This chapter provides general background on the types of data used for biosurveillance, syndromic surveillance and traditional public health surveillance, with particular emphasis on the use of clinical laboratory data. Overviews of types of surveillance, the history of clinical laboratory testing and different types of laboratories are provided as background. A more detailed discussion of the roles and characteristics of clinical laboratory data with respect to biosurveillance includes comments on data standards and analytic requirements, with particular emphasis on understanding possible sources of variability or artifact during data analysis and interpretation.