Question

Hundreds of hospitals, clinics, and health departments automatically report certain symptoms and diagnoses to the government each day. This practice of biosurveillance helps officials track the spread of flu, detect outbreaks, and watch for unusual symptoms that might signal a brand new disease or bioterrorism. Although information is reported each day, doctors rarely know what their colleagues nearby are diagnosing. Instead they often call the health information department to ask if anyone has heard of any outbreak of certain cases. However, work is being done to create a mechanism to track diseases before they become outbreaks.

The supervisor of data services at Reid Hospital is responsible for all registries and databases that are maintained in the facility. The medical director requests that the supervisor of data services investigate developing a registry or database to track cases of potential bioterrorism, communicable disease outbreaks, and other unusual diseases or symptoms.

You are the supervisor of data services at Reid Hospital. Please provide the medical director with the following information:

a.   What resources are available to the data services supervisor to help define the conditions that should be included in a biosurveillance registry?

Answer 1

Answer: The resources that are available to the data services supervisor to help define the conditions that should be included in a biosurveillance registry as the healthcare survey are mainly useful which helps in determination of the national healthcare data in settings such as inpatient,outpatient as well as emergency etc. The centers for disease prevention involves the data development plan which includes National electronic disease surveillance system.