Syndromic Surveillance Data Sources and Collection Strategies

In this and the ensuing two chapters, we will focus on three key technical aspects of modern syndromic surveillance systems: data sources and collection strategies; data analysis and outbreak detection; and data visualization, information dissemination, and reporting. This chapter discusses syndromic data collection strategies and related data sources. Data collection is a critical early step when developing a syndromic surveillance system. It involves the selection of data sources, choices over vocabulary to be used, data entry approaches, and data transmission strategies and protocols. We will go through the related technical issues in the following sections. Towards the end of this chapter, we briefly summarize additional policy-related considerations that may impact data collection.