Improving the Public Health Response

Defining ‘Disability’ in Clinical Terms

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on everyone. People living with disabilities had more severe illness and reported greater challenges getting to a vaccination site. The CDC is now working with others to define disability in clinical terms so that data can be collected to better understand and address these and other challenges.

CDC Funding Links Data to Suicide Prevention

Emergency department data from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program are being used to better understand suicidal behavior and guide prevention measures.

NSSP Supports CDC’s Mpox Response

Data from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) and other CDC programs are integral to detecting and monitoring novel and emerging diseases. NSSP collaborates with infectious disease experts throughout the agency and with epidemiologists to closely monitor multiple NSSP data sources to improve our understanding of mpox.

NSSP Supports the COVID-19 Response

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the largest response to any disease outbreak in CDC’s history. The National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) is an essential part of CDC’s agencywide, long-term response to COVID-19. NSSP collaborates with experts across the agency, other government agencies, and state and local health departments to monitor and mitigate this evolving health threat.

Understanding the Pandemic’s Impact on Children and Teens

Experts in syndromic surveillance and behavioral health collaborated on two reports that examine the impact of the pandemic on the health and well-being of children and teens.

Data Integration Improves Public Health Surveillance

The NSSP team collaborated on a pilot project to integrate mortality data with syndromic data. The addition of mortality data to NSSP’s BioSense Platform will give insight into anomalies and deviations from baseline trends.

White House Briefing Uses NSSP Data to Demonstrate Severe Heat-related Impact of Climate Change

The National Climate Task Force used CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program data during a June 2021 White House briefing to show the increase in cases of heat-related emergency visits associated with climate change.

Prepare, Respond, Recover…

NSSP Assists Emergency Response Efforts

The public health impact from hurricanes and tropical storms can be devastating and multifaceted. The CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program provides actionable data—in near real-time—to improve the public health response.

Syndromic Surveillance of Vaccine-associated Adverse Events in U.S. Emergency Departments

Syndromic surveillance can supplement vaccine safety monitoring systems currently being used. An article published in Vaccine demonstrates how emergency department data from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) can identify and monitor vaccine-associated adverse events (VAE).

CDC Heat & Health Tracker Uses NSSP Data

Tracker uses syndromic data to display emergency department visits associated with heat-related illness. These actionable data can inform public health messaging.

ESSENCE Laboratory Categorizations v1

The NSSP team has been working with subject experts at CDC to sort laboratory tests into categories. Use these categories to quickly find laboratory tests for a specific pathogen, chemical, or other area of interest.

Query Available to Help Identify Emergency Department Visits after Vaccination

State and local partners NSSP have expressed interest in exploring the use of emergency department (ED) data to monitor safety.

Developing a Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Syndrome for State Health Departments

In July 2020, NSSP Community of Practice Syndrome Definition Subcommittee focused on health topics that affect children, including COVID infection-associated shutdowns, children being out of school, and families under increased stress.

Interstate Sharing of Opioid Data

During the June 2020 NSSP CoP monthly call, “Interstate Data-Sharing in the BioSense Platform,” Zach Faigen (NC) and Mike Dolan Fliss (NC) described their project for sharing opioid data from emergency department (ED) visits with neighboring states. Their motivation stemmed from the 2019 NSSP Regional Data Sharing Workshop Series in which attendees discussed the feasibility of, challenges to, and goals for sharing data across public health jurisdictions.

Epidemiologists Use NSSP–ESSENCE Dashboard to Supplement Case-Finding for COVID-19

CDC is closely monitoring an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

NSSP and NCIRD Assess ILINet Collaboration

States routinely use syndromic surveillance to monitor influenza-like illness (ILI) and detect novel influenza virus activity.

Lung Injury Response, NSSP Develops Queries to Support

In mid-August 2019, NSSP staff began working with members of the NSSP CoP and develop queries that could support CDC’s ongoing multistate lung injury response.