In Nashville when you go to the emergency room, call 911 for certain medical assistance or go to the pharmacy for nonprescription drugs, the reason you seek help is being tracked by an organized system. The Nashville Metro Department of Health is looking for local health problems that may poise a danger to the general public. It is part of a national system.
Information from these sources are downloaded daily to the health department’s computer. Data is processed and trends looked for by specially programmed software. If something is found that shows an unusual or statistically significant anomaly in the reports, staff is automatically contacted by the computer or people reviewing the information.
“The system we use is referred to as syndromic surveillance and raises a daily index of suspicion for sickness appearing in the local population,” said Joseph Schuchter, epidemiologist for the metro health department. “It provides us with an early indicator so we can react to any arising problem quickly.”
The system, that also looks at daily sickness information from metro schools, is officially called the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) and was adopted in Nashville in Nov 2001. It was initially adopted to look for bioterrorism but its use has been expanded to look for outbreaks of diseases like flu, SARS or out right epidemics.
According to Schuchter, every hospital in Nashville participates in EARS with the exception of Nashville ‘s Veterans Administration hospital. Some hospitals, like Vanderbilt Medical Center, have developed their own system to complement Metro’s.
“Vanderbilt uses its Whiteboard plasma screen to keep track of incoming patients,’ said Dr. Robin Hemphill, Director of Prepardness at Vanderbilt. ‘We coordinate our system with Metro’s system by providing information on every patient’s sex, age and chief complaint. It also helps us see developing trends.”
Vanderbilt has its own in-house computer system to alert officials and is improving it to be even more effective, according to Hemphill. The medical center already has over one year of data collected, but prefers five years to better see trends like seasonal sickness
In Nashville when you go to the emergency room, call 911 for certain medical assistance or go to the pharmacy for nonprescription drugs, the reason you seek help is being tracked by an organized system. The Nashville Metro Department of Health is looking for local health problems that may poise a danger to the general public. It is part of a national system.
Information from these sources are downloaded daily to the health department’s computer. Data is processed and trends looked for by specially programmed software. If something is found that shows an unusual or statistically significant anomaly in the reports, staff is automatically contacted by the computer or people reviewing the information.
“The system we use is referred to as syndromic surveillance and raises a daily index of suspicion for sickness appearing in the local population,” said Joseph Schuchter, epidemiologist for the metro health department. “It provides us with an early indicator so we can react to any arising problem quickly.”
The system, that also looks at daily sickness information from metro schools, is officially called the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) and was adopted in Nashville in Nov 2001. It was initially adopted to look for bioterrorism but its use has been expanded to look for outbreaks of diseases like flu, SARS or out right epidemics.
According to Schuchter, every hospital in Nashville participates in EARS with the exception of Nashville ‘s Veterans Administration hospital. Some hospitals, like Vanderbilt Medical Center, have developed their own system to complement Metro’s.
“Vanderbilt uses its Whiteboard plasma screen to keep track of incoming patients,’ said Dr. Robin Hemphill, Director of Prepardness at Vanderbilt. ‘We coordinate our system with Metro’s system by providing information on every patient’s sex, age and chief complaint. It also helps us see developing trends.”
Vanderbilt has its own in-house computer system to alert officials and is improving it to be even more effective, according to Hemphill. The medical center already has over one year of data collected, but prefers five years to better see trends like seasonal sickness
In Nashville when you go to the emergency room, call 911 for certain medical assistance or go to the pharmacy for nonprescription drugs, the reason you seek help is being tracked by an organized system. The Nashville Metro Department of Health is looking for local health problems that may poise a danger to the general public. It is part of a national system.
Information from these sources are downloaded daily to the health department’s computer. Data is processed and trends looked for by specially programmed software. If something is found that shows an unusual or statistically significant anomaly in the reports, staff is automatically contacted by the computer or people reviewing the information.
“The system we use is referred to as syndromic surveillance and raises a daily index of suspicion for sickness appearing in the local population,” said Joseph Schuchter, epidemiologist for the metro health department. “It provides us with an early indicator so we can react to any arising problem quickly.”
The system, that also looks at daily sickness information from metro schools, is officially called the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) and was adopted in Nashville in Nov 2001. It was initially adopted to look for bioterrorism but its use has been expanded to look for outbreaks of diseases like flu, SARS or out right epidemics.
According to Schuchter, every hospital in Nashville participates in EARS with the exception of Nashville ‘s Veterans Administration hospital. Some hospitals, like Vanderbilt Medical Center, have developed their own system to complement Metro’s.
“Vanderbilt uses its Whiteboard plasma screen to keep track of incoming patients,’ said Dr. Robin Hemphill, Director of Prepardness at Vanderbilt. ‘We coordinate our system with Metro’s system by providing information on every patient’s sex, age and chief complaint. It also helps us see developing trends.”
Vanderbilt has its own in-house computer system to alert officials and is improving it to be even more effective, according to Hemphill. The medical center already has over one year of data collected, but prefers five years to better see trends like seasonal sickness
In Nashville when you go to the emergency room, call 911 for certain medical assistance or go to the pharmacy for nonprescription drugs, the reason you seek help is being tracked by an organized system. The Nashville Metro Department of Health is looking for local health problems that may poise a danger to the general public. It is part of a national system.
Information from these sources are downloaded daily to the health department’s computer. Data is processed and trends looked for by specially programmed software. If something is found that shows an unusual or statistically significant anomaly in the reports, staff is automatically contacted by the computer or people reviewing the information.
“The system we use is referred to as syndromic surveillance and raises a daily index of suspicion for sickness appearing in the local population,” said Joseph Schuchter, epidemiologist for the metro health department. “It provides us with an early indicator so we can react to any arising problem quickly.”
The system, that also looks at daily sickness information from metro schools, is officially called the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) and was adopted in Nashville in Nov 2001. It was initially adopted to look for bioterrorism but its use has been expanded to look for outbreaks of diseases like flu, SARS or out right epidemics.
According to Schuchter, every hospital in Nashville participates in EARS with the exception of Nashville ‘s Veterans Administration hospital. Some hospitals, like Vanderbilt Medical Center, have developed their own system to complement Metro’s.
“Vanderbilt uses its Whiteboard plasma screen to keep track of incoming patients,’ said Dr. Robin Hemphill, Director of Prepardness at Vanderbilt. ‘We coordinate our system with Metro’s system by providing information on every patient’s sex, age and chief complaint. It also helps us see developing trends.”
Vanderbilt has its own in-house computer system to alert officials and is improving it to be even more effective, according to Hemphill. The medical center already has over one year of data collected, but prefers five years to better see trends like seasonal sickness
In Nashville when you go to the emergency room, call 911 for certain medical assistance or go to the pharmacy for nonprescription drugs, the reason you seek help is being tracked by an organized system. The Nashville Metro Department of Health is looking for local health problems that may poise a danger to the general public. It is part of a national system.
Information from these sources are downloaded daily to the health department’s computer. Data is processed and trends looked for by specially programmed software. If something is found that shows an unusual or statistically significant anomaly in the reports, staff is automatically contacted by the computer or people reviewing the information.
“The system we use is referred to as syndromic surveillance and raises a daily index of suspicion for sickness appearing in the local population,” said Joseph Schuchter, epidemiologist for the metro health department. “It provides us with an early indicator so we can react to any arising problem quickly.”
The system, that also looks at daily sickness information from metro schools, is officially called the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) and was adopted in Nashville in Nov 2001. It was initially adopted to look for bioterrorism but its use has been expanded to look for outbreaks of diseases like flu, SARS or out right epidemics.
According to Schuchter, every hospital in Nashville participates in EARS with the exception of Nashville ‘s Veterans Administration hospital. Some hospitals, like Vanderbilt Medical Center, have developed their own system to complement Metro’s.
“Vanderbilt uses its Whiteboard plasma screen to keep track of incoming patients,’ said Dr. Robin Hemphill, Director of Prepardness at Vanderbilt. ‘We coordinate our system with Metro’s system by providing information on every patient’s sex, age and chief complaint. It also helps us see developing trends.”
Vanderbilt has its own in-house computer system to alert officials and is improving it to be even more effective, according to Hemphill. The medical center already has over one year of data collected, but prefers five years to better see trends like seasonal sickness
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