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Syndromic Tracking and Reporting System --- Overview
and Example
Jylmarie Kintz,1 Eliot
Gregos,1 David Atrubin,1,2 Jeff
Sanchez1
1Hillsborough County Health Department, Tampa, Florida;
2Florida Department of Health Epidemic Intelligence Service, Tallahassee, Florida
Corresponding author: Jylmarie Kintz, Hillsborough County Health Department, 1105 East Kennedy Boulevard, P.O. Box 5135, Tampa, FL 33675-5135. Telephone: 813-307-8010; Fax: 813-276-2981; E-mail: jylmarie_kintz@doh.state.fl.us.
Abstract
Introduction: In cooperation with CDC and the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Epidemiology,
the Hillsborough County Health Department (HCHD) first participated in syndromic surveillance during the 2001 Super Bowl. Ongoing syndromic surveillance was implemented in November 2001. Nine hospital
emergency departments (EDs) in the county report syndromes daily.
Objectives: The Syndromic Tracking and Reporting System (STARS) augments HCHD's traditional
disease reporting by acquiring near real-time syndromic data from hospital EDs. STARS is designed to detect terrorism-related and naturally occurring outbreaks in which affected persons seek ED care.
Methods: Seven different syndromes are monitored by ED physicians. ED staff then enter limited
patient information and the appropriate syndrome into an Internet-based system. The data are housed at HCHD and analyzed by using CDC's Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) software, which detects statistical
aberrations. A decision matrix is used to decide which aberrations require follow-up by HCHD's epidemiology staff.
Results: Statistical aberrations have been investigated periodically. On March 24, 2003, STARS detected
20 reported cases of diarrhea/gastroenteritis syndrome from one hospital. This spike in the data was flagged by EARS statistical aberration software. Follow-up investigation revealed that 14 of 20 affected persons had chronic conditions that were not of infectious disease concern, and no outbreak was determined to have occurred.
Conclusions: The system worked as intended. Studies are under way to evaluate data quality and assess the validity and sensitivity of STARS.
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