A Syndromic Approach to Emergency Department Surveillance for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections

Authors

  • Larissa May Emergency Medicine, The George Washington University, Washington, DC
  • Marcus Rennick Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, MA
  • Leah Gustafson Emergency Medicine, The George Washington University, Washington, DC
  • Julia Gunn Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, MA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4430

Abstract

We sought to describe the epidemiology of emergency department (ED) visits for skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in an urban area with diverse neighborhood populations using syndromic surveillance system data for the time period from 2007-2011. Our aims were three-fold: to demonstrate a proof of concept using syndromic surveillance for SSTI surveillance in the absence of laboratory data, to estimate the burden of ED visits associated with SSTI, and to determine potential geographic ‰ÛÏhotspots‰Û� for these infections.Using our SSTI syndrome definition, we estimated unique SSTI visits represented 3.29 % (n= 45,252) of all visits within Boston‰Ûªs ten EDs during the study period with a seasonal pattern peaking during the summer months.a disproportionate number of SSTI visits (43%) were among Black patients when compared to both the overall Boston population (22% Black) and to the racial distribution of all ED visits (39% Black). The geographic neighborhood distribution of SSTI visits ranged from a low of 2.69% to a high of 4.11% of all neighborhood-specific ED visits.A local syndromic surveillance system has the potential to provide public health authorities and ED clinicians near real-time monitoring of trends in severity and demographic risk factors, and may provide an alternative to tracking the severity of illness where no laboratory data are readily available.

Author Biography

Larissa May, Emergency Medicine, The George Washington University, Washington, DC

Larissa May, MD, MSPH is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the George Washington University and holds a masters degree in public health microbiology and emerging infectious diseases. Dr. May's areas of expertise are the use of the electronic health record for emergency department based clinical and public health surveillance research and the application of syndromic surveillance in low and medium resource settings. Dr. May has lectured extensively on syndromic surveillance and public health preparedness and has authored over twenty peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and chapters in the area of infectious disease epidemiology, training, and public health surveillance. She has served as a consultant and subject matter expert in the development and evaluation of several syndromic surveillance systems. Dr. May has been an active member of ISDS since 2006 and Chair of the Education and Training Committee since 2008, for whom she led the development and implementation of the NACCHO funded online continuing education course Syndromic Surveillance 101: An Introduction to Syndromic Surveillance for Clinicians and Public Health Practitioners.

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Published

2013-03-23

How to Cite

May, L., Rennick, M., Gustafson, L., & Gunn, J. (2013). A Syndromic Approach to Emergency Department Surveillance for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4430

Issue

Section

Oral Presentations: Novel Uses of Syndromic Data