New York City Syndromic Surveillance Systems

The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has conducted prospective surveillance of nonspecific health indicators (syndromes) since 1995 (Heffernan et al., 2004a). The DOHMH syndromic surveillance system consists of (ED)-visits-based surveillance system and a few other complementary surveillance systems for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance dispatch calls, retail pharmacy sales, and work absenteeism data. These systems started operating separately, and different analytical methods are being employed by each of them. A “drop-in” syndromic surveillance system that deployed CDC field-staff to conduct 24 hours surveillance for bioterrorism related illness was implemented following the September 11th 2001 attack (Das et al., 2003; CDC, 2002). We use Table 11-1 to summarize these systems that comprise the syndromic surveillance activities in New York City. However, in the following text, the case study will focus around the ED visits based syndromic surveillance system in NYC.