Syndromic Surveillance Implementation Guide Released

A message from Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (October 2011)

Public Health Syndromic Surveillance (PHSS) is a widely adopted and rapidly evolving approach for monitoring and assessing public health. PHSS leverages information technology to systematically collect large volumes of electronic health-related data from clinical and non-clinical service providers in near "real-time" (e.g. hospital, school administrations). Epidemiologists then analyze PHSS data to monitor, assess or identify population health trends including infectious disease outbreaks, exacerbations of chronic disease conditions, and injuries. In conjunction with other surveillance and situation information, PHSS is used by public health authorities (PHA) to guide or evaluate response measures and public health interventions.

The PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance: Emergency Department and Urgent Care Data Version 1.0 - HL7 Version 2.5.1 (Version 2.3.1 Compatible), translates the recommendations made by the International Society for Disease Surveillance and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help realize the public health objective of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs (a.k.a., Meaningful Use Programs) authorized under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) legislation.

A Frequently Asked Questions document accompanies this guide to assist implementations. Public comments were received on the earlier draft of this document and disposition of the comment received are available in the Public Comment Disposition worksheet.

All Syndromic Surveillance documents can be found online at the CDC’s Meaningful Use website http://www.cdc.gov/ehrmeaningfuluse/Syndromic.html. The PHIN Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance is posted on the PHIN website at http://www.cdc.gov/phin.


For additional questions or support E-mail: phintech@cdc.gov