05. Public Health Surveillance Flashcards
Public Health Surveillance definition
The ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those responsible for prevention and control.
Goal
Provide information that can be used for health action by public health personnel, government leaders, and the public to guide public health policy and programs
Uses of Public Health Surveillance
- Identify patients and their contacts for treatment and intervention
- Detect epidemics, health problems, changes in health behaviors
- Estimate magnitude and scope of health problems
- Measure trends and characterize disease
- Monitor changes in infectious and environmental agents
- Assess effectiveness of programs and control measures
- Develop hypotheses and stimulate research
Legal Authority for Conducting Public Health Surveillance
States have authority based on the U.S. Constitution
- General welfare clause
- Interstate commerce clause
CDC responds when
- disease or condition has interstate implications
- invited by a state
NYS Reportable Diseases
Who: Physicians, nurses, laboratory directors, infection control practitioners, health care facilities, state institutions, schools
Where: Report to local health department where the patient resides
When: Diseases listed in bold red require immediate reporting via phone to local health department; Other diseases require reporting within 24 hours via confidential case report.
Special Scenario
- Any unusual disease (defined as a newly apparent or emerging disease or syndrome that could possibly be caused by a transmissible infectious agent or microbial toxin) is reportable
- A cluster or outbreak of any communicable disease is a reportable event
Types of Public Health Surveillance
- Passive Surveillance
- Diseases are reported by health care providers
- Simple and inexpensive
- Limited by incompleteness of reporting and variability of quality
- Active Surveillance
- Health agencies contact health providers seeking reports
- Ensures more complete reporting of conditions • Used in conjunction with specific epidemiologic investigation
- Sentinel Surveillance
- Reporting of health events by health professionals who are selected to represent a geographic area or a specific reporting group
- Can be active or passive
- Syndromic Surveillance
- Focuses on one or more symptoms rather than a physician-diagnosed or laboratory-confirmed disease
Surveillance System Attributes
Usefulness
Data quality
Timeliness
Flexibility
Simplicity
Stability
Sensitivity
Predictive value positive
Representativeness
Acceptability
Surveillance Process (5)
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Data Interpretation
Data Dissemination
Link to Actio
Data Collection (data source)
- Reported diseases or syndromes
- Electronic health records (e.g., hospital discharge data)
- Vital records (e.g., birth and death certificates)
- Registries (e.g., cancer, immunization)
- Surveys (e.g., National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES])
Data Analysis
• Who will analyze the data? • What methodology will they use? • How often will they analyze the data?
Data Interpretation
closely coupled with data analysis
Data Dissemination (approach and target)
Approach:
- Health agency newsletters, bulletins, or alerts
- Surveillance summaries and reports
- Medical and epidemiologic journal articles
- Press releases and social media
Target:
- Public health practitioners
- Clinicians and other health care providers
- Policy and other decision makers
- Community organizations
- The general public
Link to Action
Evaluate prevention and control efforts
monitor trends and patterns in disease, risk factors, agents
