Abstract
BackgroundSyndromic surveillance provides public health intelligence to aid in early warning and monitoring of public health impacts (e.g. seasonal influenza), or reassurance when an impact has not occurred. Using information collected during routine patient care, syndromic surveillance can be based on signs/symptoms/preliminary diagnoses. This approach makes syndromic surveillance much timelier than surveillance requiring laboratory confirmed diagnoses.The provision of healthcare services and patient access to them varies globally. However, emergency departments (EDs) exist worldwide, providing unscheduled urgent care to people in acute need. This provision of care makes ED syndromic surveillance (EDSyS) a potentially valuable tool for public health surveillance internationally.The objective of this study was to identify and describe the key characteristics of EDSyS systems that have been established and used globally.MethodsWe systematically reviewed studies published in peer review journals and presented at International Society of Infectious Disease Surveillance conferences (up to and including 2017) to identify EDSyS systems which have been created and used for public health purposes. Search criteria developed to identify “emergency department” and “syndromic surveillance” were applied to NICE healthcare, Global Health and Scopus databases.ResultsIn total, 559 studies were identified as eligible for inclusion in the review, comprising 136 journal articles and 423 conference abstracts/papers. From these studies we identified 115 EDSyS systems in 15 different countries/territories across North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Systems ranged from local surveillance based on a single ED, to comprehensive national systems. National EDSyS systems were identified in 8 countries/territories: 2 reported inclusion of ≥85% of ED visits nationally (France and Taiwan).ConclusionsEDSyS provides a valuable tool for the identification and monitoring of trends in severe illness. Technological advances, particularly in the emergency care patient record, have enabled the evolution of EDSyS over time. EDSyS reporting has become closer to ‘real-time’, with automated, secure electronic extraction and analysis possible on a daily, or more frequent basis.The dissemination of methods employed and evidence of successful application to public health practice should be encouraged to support learning from best practice, enabling future improvement, harmonisation and collaboration between systems in future.Prospero numberCRD42017069150.
Highlights
Syndromic surveillance provides public health intelligence to aid in early warning and monitoring of public health impacts, or reassurance when an impact has not occurred
Examples of syndromic surveillance data range from; calls from those who are ill in the community to telehealth advice phone lines [6, 7], to patients attending in person in primary care [8, 9], or in emergency care situations including emergency departments (ED)
Title and abstract screening of the resulting 1065 studies (270 journal articles and 795 International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) conference abstracts/papers) excluded 237 studies that did not clearly describe an operational ED syndromic surveillance (EDSyS) system and two studies that were identified as nonISDS conference abstracts
Summary
Syndromic surveillance provides public health intelligence to aid in early warning and monitoring of public health impacts (e.g. seasonal influenza), or reassurance when an impact has not occurred. Using information collected during routine patient care, syndromic surveillance can be based on signs/symptoms/preliminary diagnoses. This approach makes syndromic surveillance much timelier than surveillance requiring laboratory confirmed diagnoses. Emergency departments (EDs) exist worldwide, providing unscheduled urgent care to people in acute need. This provision of care makes ED syndromic surveillance (EDSyS) a potentially valuable tool for public health surveillance internationally. Syndromic surveillance uses symptom and/or preliminary diagnosis information and rapid data collection methods to provide information for public heath action. The sources of patient health information used for syndromic surveillance are as varied as the different types of health care provision that exist. Examples of syndromic surveillance data range from; calls from those who are ill in the community to telehealth advice phone lines [6, 7], to patients attending in person in primary care (family doctors) [8, 9], or in emergency care situations including emergency departments (ED)
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